Leaderboard
by BlueCherryCocoa
Summary: The Pokemon World Tournament has made an absolutely spectacular comeback! The highlight, AKA, the champion's tier, has drawn in trainers from Kanto to Alola to participate, and each one is reaching for the grand prize! Which one will triumph over them all? Who will crash and burn trying? When opening day arrives, all in the conference hall stare towards the leaderboard.
1. Chapter 1

**_After a long hiatus, I decided that, "hey, I'm a fucking loser still," and I have returned! In my absence, I've learned that growing up fucking sucks and I'm desperately holding on to every tiny bit of comfort I can find. If it happens to be writing about a kid's game? Sure, fuck it. Why not?_**

 ** _First, shout out to my girl Rydia for suggesting the name, cause I was stumped. Second, I'm not sure if author's notes are still a thing people do, so I'm just doing it half out of habit, and half out of memory's sake._**

 ** _Except the disclaimer. Of course I don't own Pokemon. I'm not even sure why this caught wind. Like, it's a site for fanfiction._**

 ** _Third! It's very obvious that while you read this, this story is heavily headcanon based! Most names, reaching from generation 1 to generation 3 protagonists, use the names listed in the original publications of Pokemon Special. The inclusion of Yellow is just because I could._**

* * *

"So, everything is set?"

A young woman rocks back and forth with crossed legs in her chair. Her long pigtails create a subtle tap which echoes throughout the room. Her wide brown eyes stare inquisitively towards the one across from her.

"Yep. Ya got yerself a deal, lady." The man before her nods, a soft smirk creeping across his face. "All them there-ah invitations been sent out. Just need ta wait fer 'em all ta drop in."

There's a visible excitement plastering the woman's face as she spins in her chair and cheers, pumping her fist into the air. The man, however, clears his throat suddenly.

"And look, when this here-ah competition goes down, ya best be the last one standing." He pushes up the tip of his hat, his playfulness dropping just for a moment. "Can ya do that, miss champ?"

With a clasp of her hands, the woman hops to her feet and cracks her neck, along with her knuckles. "Who do you think I am?" Her confidence is oozing. "I've never lost before, and I won't lose now. Don't you know that better than anyone, Clay?"

"Yeah yeah, I hear ya." Driftveil's leader waves his hand dismissively, though he couldn't help but recall his gym battle with the girl. Rarely would trainers be crazy enough to battle gym leaders while hindering themselves with a type disadvantage. He told this girl she was out of her mind taking on ground types with a fire type and a poison type. He shut up real quick when he saw Palpitoed fall to her Pignite.

It felt like so long ago, yet the aftertaste of defeat still lingered on his tongue. He worried heer confidence would get the better of her, but she could definitely back it up.

"Anyway, I gotta go!" She breaks the silence and makes her way towards the door. "Thanks, Clay! This is gonna be sweet!" As soon as her words parted her lips, she shut the door behind her. She lets out a squee and clenches her fists.

"Oh, it's so _on_!"

"Miss Mei."

Her attention immediately falls to the calling of a sudden voice. For a moment, Mei seemed confused, but she quickly smiled again.

"What's shakin' miss secretary?" She mused. "Walk with me, talk with me."

"Now that your meeting is done," She began, flipping the page on her clipboard and following close behind Mei as they make their way down the hall, "you have a commercial shooting in 30 minutes. After that, you have to go in for retakes an hour or two later."

At the word 'retakes', Mei couldn't help but groan. Of _course_ there was some kind of screw up they didn't catch till the last minute. This had been happening for the past two weeks of shooting. Often, this would derail her plans for the day.

But, not today. She refused.

"Fine fine, but before we go, we're getting ice cream," she declares. Her secretary furrows a brow.

"I must object. There's no possible way we can make it to a parlor, eat, a-"

"Bla bla bla bla bla, have some _faith_ in me! I'm a master of multitasking, don't you know that already?" Without giving her a chance to respond, Mei takes the hand of "Miss Secretary" and drags her along. She attempts to protest, but it goes through one ear and out the other. They're already out the door anyhow.

* * *

Okay, so multitasking wasn't really Mei's plan whatsoever. But the parlor is so close to the studio anyway! They can afford to stop for just a moment! And Mei wasn't about to let this triple chocolate sundae with hot fudge, chocolate sprinkles, crushed oreos, and chocolate chips go to waste!

Her secretary stares in awe at all of that… chocolate, her eyes occasionally falling back to her medium sized vanilla, or as Mei would call it, the "world's thiccest milkshake" along with french fries that Mei had pushed her into buying with it. At least she was right about one thing; dipping the fries in her shake wasn't half bad of an idea.

She watched Mei go to town on her sundae as if this were the first meal she had eaten in ages. Technically, she should be stopping her, but something told her that was a bad idea.

Instead, she decided to entertain something else on her mind. She takes a sip from her shake- ugh, one that took more effort than necessary, and spoke up.

"So, Miss Mei?" She calls. No response. But, she knows that she's listening. Not like anyone else is around to speak to her. "Who are the other trainers who received invitations to the Pokemon World Tournament?"

Mei's spoon stops moving. A sudden breeze picks up, as the sound of a lone plastic bag tumbled down the street along with it.

The secretary seemed to pause herself, furrowing a brow. "Er, Miss M-"

"You _really_ don't know the other champs?" Mei seemed to make it her mission to say that as loud as possible, so much so that the secretary seemed to get worried someone might pass by and hear.

Was it really that shocking? She had no clue this was just common knowledge, but it wasn't like she was a trainer herself. Maybe it was common knowledge in their community?

"The only ones I know were Alder, Iris, and you," she admits. To say this conflicted Mei, however, would be an understatement.

"Well, that's flattering and all," she began, "but there are some crazy strong people out there!" The excitement in Mei's eyes for a moment shimmered brightly, before falling dreamily as she rested her head in her palms. "And some are finally succeeding officially this year after training for so long! I can't even begin to imagine how strong they all are now~! And it's been so long since I've seen them!"

Never had she seen Mei so excited before. The amount of passion she put out while playing Usagi paled in comparison to just daydreaming about battles she had yet to have.

Mei's trancelike state breaks nearly moments later. "I almost forgot, whoops!" She sheepishly rubs the back of her head before pressing a finger to her lips and humming. "Let's see…" _Where to begin, where to begin._ Her eyes widen for a moment, and she snaps. "Okay, I'll start there!"

* * *

Well, this wasn't something he expected to see in his mailbox.

The letter, addressed to "Redwood Ketchum," with the return address of PWT? With a furrowed brow, he tears open the envelope as he begins to walk back to his porch. As he suspected, inside was a letter, along with plain tickets. As he pushed in open his front door, he began to read.

" _Dear recipient!_

 _You have been selected to participate in the returning Pokemon World Tournament, hosted in Driftveil City, Unova! You will be flied out on an all expenses paid trip to participate in the Champion's division, along with the current champions of Indigo, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, and the recently established Alola leagues!"_

Right, Red remembers this now. He went to this some years back when he finally came down from that mountain, and all the hype it had generated. He remembered it being the first actual one he had experienced, and how crazy people had gone for him. While he doesn't remember that part quite as fondly, the battling, however, was a different story.

The battles, oh, they were so exciting! He felt giddy whenever he thought about them. The other champions were so strong, and many forced him to exert himself more than he had in years. But, he does remember one above the rest; the one who defeated him in the finals.

"Whatcha got there, ketchup?"

His trancelike state is broken as a voice echoes from the living room. Red turned his head and held out his hand. The other man hopped off the couch for a moment to snatch the letter from Red's hands. He clears his throat and begins to read aloud.

His eyes widen and he grows visibly more excited as he finishes the first paragraph. Suddenly, he drops the letter and rushes out the door. Red stood there, bewildered.

At least, for a moment.

" _Next on the list, it has been 6 months since the arrest of notorious leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni. If you recall, he was briefly in control of Indigo Plateau and placed a hit on 7 individuals, 4 of which were previous champions of Indigo, and one including his own son..._ "

Ah, that report had caught Red's attention very quick. While the noise on the TV was quickly filtered out, he had remembered this event fondly. Taking that man down, one who's face had haunted his dreams for a decade, was the most euphoric feeling he had felt. Before he knew it, the memories of said event had come flowing through his mind.

* * *

" _Now, as you stand here today before us, I request your full cooperation." Lance speaks clearly before several trainers before him, his gaze holding firm as he points to the projection behind him. "You are all aware of the challenges brought about by the criminal organizations that plagued the world. Unfortunately, their seeds have sewn deep into it, and unfortunately, they're sprouting."_

 _With a click of his remote, the current powerpoint slide changed, revealing a man in a trench coat and black fedora. However, the most notable feature of him was the bright red "R" embroidered into the coat._

 _A silence sweeps over the room. Not even the breathing of trainers could be heard under the slight roar of the projector. However, the tension was suffocating. Lance takes this as a time to continue._

" _When Gold and Crystal reported his death in the Celebi incident years ago, I thought that would be the end of it. However, as we know, this man was sighted at the Pokemon World Tournament uninvited, and battled in the Gym Leader tournament._

" _Red, Green, Blue, Gold, Crystal, and Silver. You all have connections to this man, and have experience in dealing with his organization." He takes a deep breath, before he continues."I have made a grave mistake by allowing you all to get involved as young children, and an even sickening mistake of employing him as gym leader-"_

" _Yeah, how'd that happen by the w-"_

" _Gold. Questions later." Lance's tone holds stern, and his eyes narrow ever so slightly. However, the young man shrugs and leans back in his seat._

 _With a soft sigh, Lance continues. "I want to apologize. Red, Green, Gold, Crystal. You have each encountered Giovanni and battled him, correct?"_

 _The four trainers nod._

" _Silver, Blue. You both have interrupted Rocket schemes to rebuild."_

" _Yeah yeah, where are you going with this?"_

" _...Right." Lance seems to hesitate, something. The others pick up on in an instant, though they make no comment. Suddenly, Lance continues. "Because of this, you are all likely to be targeted… And I implore you, the strongest trainers of Kanto and Johto to please, assist us in finally bringing this man to justice."_

 _There's an audible crack of knuckles, and Lance's eyes fall to Silver._

" _You won't have to ask me twice," he spat. "I've been waiting for this moment for 11 years."_

 _Gold seems to chime in like clockwork, hopping out of his slouch and slamming his hands down on the table. "You're damn right I'll take him down! He escaped me once, he won't do it again!"_

 _Crystal smiles and adjusts her hat. "You've got yourself a deal!"_

 _Green smirks and slides his sunglasses on. "Hey, just send me and you won't even need the rest of these guys! I got a score to settle with that no eyebrowed jackass!" While the rest couldn't help but chuckle at his jab, Green Oak seemed to grow more and more restless as he stared at the photo. The aftertaste of defeat still lingered on his tongue, and he finally had the chance to pay him back in full._

 _No more 'holding back' excuses._

 _Blue rests her head in her palms and ponders for a moment, a soft hum escaping her. "Well," she suddenly states, "Guess it's better than doin' nothin' but watchin' TV. Count me in, tablecloth."_

 _Lance grit his teeth as more giggles erupted, all but from one person, one who had yet to give his answer. The rest take note of this, but Blue is the first to speak up._

" _Ey, Red Cap. You in or out, big guy?"_

 _Red stands up from his seat and stands before Lance, staring deep into his eyes. Slowly, Red extends his hand. Lance smiles, and he does the same._

 _Upon letting go, Lance turns to the rest. "Now, you are all officially employed by Indigo." Lance changes his slide, and briefly spends time going over pay, benefits, ect. Once covered, everyone was dismissed._

 _Once the door is closed behind them, Blue immediately trots over to Red and taps his shoulder. "Hey hey, Red Cap, Lance doesn't know about her still, does he?"_

 _Red takes a moment to think about this, and shakes his head. The others behind them seem confused, but it seemed neither had no intent on explaining just yet._

" _She has just as much a right to swing at Rocket Man as the rest of us, don't she?" She inquires. Gold attempts to raise his hand, a soft "uhh" escaping his lips, but Blue continues her conversation. "She may not like battlin', but we already know Blondie feels just as responsible as the rest of us."_

" _Who the hell are you-"_

" _Right! So! Which of us can drive?" Several hands hesitantly raise, and Blue slimes. "Which of ya drove here?" All hands shoot down except for Green's, who clears his throat._

" _I drove you here so how do you n-"_

" _Your car is pretty tiny. We're gonna have to sit on laps."_

 _Silver takes this moment to chime in with his two cents. "No one is doing anything till you tell us where we're going!"_

 _Blue smirks and turns around before answering. "We're going to Viridian Forest to pick up Yellow!" Red nods in agreement before continuing to walk down the halls, with Blue following suit._

 _All who remain are silent, at least, for a moment._

" _Who the fuck is Yellow?"_

* * *

Suddenly, the front door slammed closed. Red's trancelike state is broken. The spiky haired man had finally return, and his trademark smirk had plastered his face. Red furrows his brow, but then he notices it, a second envelope.

"Addressed to Green 'Motherfucking' Oak," he began as he tore open the envelope, pausing for a moment to skim over and find his previous place.

"The third place prize for winning this event will be $100,000 and a trip to Undella Town Bay and Resort! The second place prize includes a Master Ball, and an all expenses paid cruise on the Royal Unova! The first place grand prize includes the following prizes, along with a complete set of mega st-"

Green had to pause, just for a moment. His eyes squint in absolute disbelief and his mouth hung agape. The prizes so far, he knew had been unbelievable, but the grand prize? He skimmed it over multiple times, almost like he expected it to change. Once, nothing. Two, nothing. Three, is that a spelling mistake? Nope, and still nothing.

"The first place grand prize includes the following prizes, along with a complete set of mega stones?!" Green shook his head. "Holy shit, is this for real?"

Red furrows a brow, but he nods. Green almost seems to dance. Red had never seen him so happy before. He assumed that the prizes really excited him; however, Red couldn't reciprocate the excitement in that case.

Suddenly, Green stops prancing around and grabs Red's shoulders. "Look look look, get this, even though, like, I totally wouldn't lose anyhow, I got an idea." His smirk drops in favor of a genuine smile. "So, we meet in the finals, we show them what a real battle between champs looks like, and no matter who wins, we both split the prize!"

Red shrugged. Green furrows a brow and tilts his head, his mouth once again falling open in disbelief. "You serious?" He began. "Do you know how _rare_ mega stones are? And $100,000? You could live off of that for a long while! I know you could use the extra pocket money!"

"Don't care."

It was seldom that Red spoke. Some often wondered upon first meeting him if he even could. His voice was deep, and smooth like velvet. Whenever he opened his mouth, it was enough to silence a room, though it was rare for him to say more than a few words.

"You don't care…?" Green inquires, genuinely taken aback by this announcement. Red nods n response.

"I just wanna battle." And with that, he turns his back and makes his way to the couch.

Green shook his head once more and ran his fingers through his thick locks. For over 20 years he had known Red, and they had been roommates for 2 years. With all this time together. Green assumed there'd be no more surprises. However, it wasn't as if their relationship was all that deep to begin had been making slow strides to repair and maintain a friendship, key word being slow. He supposed there was a lot more to learn about him, especially if this was his attitude.

"But y'know," Red's voice suddenly cut Green out of thought. Red's head turned back to Green. "I still wanna meet you in the finals, so don't lose."

Said statement lit a fire in Green's heart. There's an audible crack of his neck echoing throughout the house. Did Red just warn _him_ not to lose? Green Motherfucking Oak and defeat didn't even go in the same sentence! At least, not anymore. Not for years! Green wasn't sure if Red had gotten cocky, or if he just didn't understand what he said was a definite challenge.

Deciding on the former, Green grits his teeth before smirking.

"Oh, you better watch your ass, Ketchum."

The competition had yet to start, but to them, it felt as if it had already begun.

* * *

"So, are you going?"

A young woman stares at the visitor sitting beside her, and the envelope in said visitor's hand. The other woman pressed a finger to her lips as a soft hum escaped her.

"Yeah, think I might," she states after a brief silence. "Might be fun, y'know? Red cap n Oak are probably headed there too, might give me an actual challenge for once, yeah?"

The blonde beside her lets out a soft yawn and stretches her arms. "Not just them," she began, "the other champs are no slouches either if they're really successors, Blue."

The brunette playfully rolls her eyes. "Ey, I said might, not a guarantee. I'm just lookin' forward to seein' Red Cap up there on the final stage." She crosses one leg over the other and reaches for her drink on the coffee table. "Ya sure _you_ don't wanna go, blondie?"

She shakes her head. "I told you before, no matter how strong I am, I don't like battling much." Her eyes fall to the pikachu lying peacefully across her lap. She softly scratches behind their ears, causing them to squeal in delight. "Besides, someone's gotta take care of all these lost trainers wandering to Pewter City."

The house these two were in was indeed located deep within the Viridian Forest. The homeowner was well known for helping young trainers through, with battling tips, healing tired and injured pokemon, you name it. It was a strangely fulfilling role, especially when she would see a young trainer she helped on TV at the Indigo Conference later down the road. Her name was Amarillo del Bosque Verde, but she always prefered…

"A'ight Yellow, whatever you say." Blue took a sip of her Sprite and placed the glass back on the coffee table. "Mm. Long as you'll be good on your own for a hot minute."

Yellow playfully rolled her eyes. "I'm not a kid. And I'm not really alone if I have my pokemon with me!"

Her pikachu nods in response.

"Right right, forgot you could talk to them, literally." Blue lets out a relaxed sigh. "Sounds like a real convenient power. Wish I could do somethin' like that. Lil wonky only gettin' a general feelin' of how your partners feel."

Yellow had to ponder that for a moment. As long as she could remember, she could always understand her pokemon. It was a blessing from being born in the Viridian Forest, along with her ability to heal pokemon. Until she met other people, she never thought it odd. And the more she thought about it, she couldn't imagine how troublesome it would be to lack this ability.

"I guess so."

A brief silence falls upon the room, at least, until Yellow's next yawn breaks the silence. She stirs, slowly lying on to her side as her pikachu moves away to allow her, only to snuggle up close to her once she's set in place.

"Think I might take a nap," she stated, her eyes slowly drifting close. "Wake me up when you want dinner."

Blue smirked. "I want _you_ all time time. Wonk." She gives Yellow a squeeze, causing her to playfully roll her eyes and groan.

"Okay, off the couch."

* * *

"Thanks, have a good day!"

The door proceeded to shut in the young man's face. He turns and walks down the padeo as he reaches into his pocket. His pokegear is pulled out, and he immediately checks for his next stop. Somewhere in..

 _Hold it._

He pauses for a moment as a text message lights up his screen. Now, who would even bother texting him while he was on the clock? It couldn't be Kurt. Old man could barely operate the thing to call, let alone figure out how to text. None of his family had spoken to him in months, either. So, who the hell got off bugging him right now?

Gold tapped away at his screen an opened it up. The text was from an unknown contact. Wonderful.

 _Look, Gold, I need you over in Blackthorn ASAP._

 _-Unknown_

Now? But that was a two hour flight from here! Heck, Gold was literally just there not too long ago! And what reason did he have to listen to this unknown number anyway?

 _Who the hell is this?_

 _-Gold_

He waits for a response, though not for very long. His pokegear screen lights up just as quick as he had sent his previous text. He briefly wonders who in the hell texts that fast.

 _You know who the hell I am. Who else do you know that lives there?_

 _-Unknown_

Ahh, thinking. Gold knew two people in Blackthorn; their god awful gym leader Clair, and his friend Silver. He would rather die than give Clair his number, so by process of elimination…

Gold sighs and taps on one of his pokeballs. In a flash of white pops a rather large togekiss, which immediately ruffles its feathers and stretches its wings.

"We're headed back to Blackthorn, buddy." Togekiss blinks and whips around to Gold, but nods nonetheless and lowers itself down. Gold proceeds to mount it, and off the two fly away.

* * *

"Fetch."

On the streets of Blackthorn City, a red haired man could be seen tossing a frisbee to a houndoom, which in turn would run and catch it before bringing it back to its trainer. All the while, the redhead would occasionally glance towards the sky, checking to see if Gold would show up in the distance.

In hindsight, he should have told him an exact location rather than just Blackthorn City.

His houndoom scampers back to him with the frisbee in its jaw, before dropping it in their trainer's hands only for it to be tossed again. Before he could toss it once more…

"Hey gingeeeer~!"

The redhead takes a deep breath.

There's only one person he knew in his life that would call him in that obnoxious of a tone. He turns his head slowly, catching sight of Gold descending with his togekiss. Soon, the bird is returned to their pokeball and Gold makes his way over to the redhead.

"So what's your deal, Sil?" He asks. "I was in the middle of delivering, which, by the way, still on the clock! Order something after this."

"Shut up."

"Excuse you?"

Silver reaches into his pocket and pulls out an envelope. "How the _hell_ do you explain _this?!_ " He spat.

Gold squints a bit. Is. Was that what he thought it was? Yeah, if the return address was the same. Driftveil City, Unova? Gold definitely recognizes it. But, he'll play dumb for a bit.

"It's a letter?"

"Don't play dumb with me Hibiki, I know you had something to do with this. No one else knows where I live!"

Oh.

Gold can't help but start whistling and turns his head away. He's dead set on keeping this a secret.

"Gold!"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

" _Gold!_ "

"Yep, that's my name all right."

Silver smacks his forehead and groans. His hand slowly drags down his face as he glares at Gold.

"Look," he began, "I know you want me to be in the spotlight too. I like battling almost as much as you do. But you already know that I can't just do what you do."

Gold furrows a brow. "And who's gonna give you a hard time if I'm with you?" He gestures to himself as his eyes widen. "Me? The champion of Indigo?"

Silver opens his mouth to retort, but a buzzing erupts from his pocket, cutting his attention away from the conversation. "Hold that thought," he states, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his pokegear.

"What are you-"

"Shh."

Silver continues to fumble with it as he slowly walks off. Gold isn't quite sure what to make of this. In the corner of his eye, however, he notices Silver's houndoom gesturing for Gold to follow. Gold points to himself, and the canine snorts before nodding and following his trainer.

Gold does as he's told and tails behind Silver. For what felt like ages to Gold, the two walked in silence, only broken by the crunching of dirt under their shoes.

The two stop walking upon arriving to a house, one Gold recognized as Silver's. It's just as run down and sketchy as he remembered it. He claimed to want to get it renovated, but he never got around to it.

The two step inside and Gold closes the door behind them. Silver immediately makes his way over to his coffee table and begins fumbling with… a radio? Gold hasn't seen one in a long while, though now that he thought about it, he's never seen Silver watching TV.

The radio clicks on, and the air is filled with a familiar sound.

" _How are you lovely people doing? It's 4pm, and you all know what that means; it's prime time, it's time for your favorite Crystal to lay down some of the hottest summer hits, take calls, and help you out with any advice I can give on the finest station this world has ever seen, 103.5 Sunset Surge!"_

Gold's face immediately lights up. He's definitely not used to the way Crys is talking, since this whole 'overly cutesy' thing definitely didn't come off as her thing, but it doesn't get in between his excitement to hear one of his friends friend on the radio!

" _But before we begin, we have some breaking news, courtesy of myself! I just got a pipin' hot invitation in the mail this morning to participate in the Champion's division in Unova's Pokemon World Tournament. Now, some of you may know that a while back, I sat on the throne of Indigo Plateau like the queen I am for 3 straight years around 5 years back, and_ _then,"_ There's a pause in her words, which caused both of the boys to exchanged a glance with furrowed brows, before Crystal began to speak again. _"My friend, quote on quote, Gold Hibiki descended from Mt. Olympus and blew me away, that meanie, and has sat there since. While I do plan on getting my seat back one day, this is a marvelous way to test my skills against the world's best._

" _And because of that, I'm gonna have to say bye for a hot minute, but don't you fret! cause Crystal knows you love her lots, so I'll be live blogging a lot of the experiences over on my Insta! So, keep a look out for me! I'll be back home soon with a shiny new trophy, and every fabulous prize Unova has to offer. So, a big shout out to my friend Gold for putting in recommendations for me. Love you, BFF!"_

 _Ah, shit._

As Crystal's voice faded out, Gold momentarily questioned the term BFF, considering those two hadn't been speaking as much recently. But most importantly, he attempted to head for the door. However, the moment he turned around, he saw a houndoom standing guard.

"Gold."

His head slowly turns around. "Yeeees best buddy?"

"You have a 5 second head start." Like clockwork, the houndoom hops out of the way, and Gold sprints as fast as he can out of the house, not bothering to look behind him for anything.

Fortunately enough, Silver just shuts the door without bothering to give chase. He stares one more time at the envelope and opens it up. He's reread this letter multiple times, pondering what exactly would be his best option. He doesn't want to go, and he knows it's nothing but trouble. However, with these prepaid tickets already sent, he'd feel awful just ignoring them. Silver sits down on his couch and buries his face into his hands.

God, what had he gotten himself into?

"Stupid Gold…"

* * *

"And those 5 sent me their confirmations shortly after that!" Mei crosses her arms and nods triumphantly.

… _.Silence…_

"How'd you know about the parts you weren't there for?"

"I'm not finished yet!" Mei puffs out her cheeks. "Seriously, already worrying about the smallest details! Not like they couldn't have _told_ me, you know?"

The secretary rolls her eyes and looks at her wrist watch. She hoped this wouldn't take up much more time. For both her sake, and for Mei's.

"Okay, but make it quick," she sighed. "Remember, we only have five minu-"

"Wait five minutes? Geez! I'll tell you on the way!" Quickly, Mei grabs Miss Secretary's wrist and drags her along the street and away from the parlor, leaving a partially melting sundae left behind.

She's just going to let this happen.

"Later into the evening, we got some of our last couple confirmations from Hoenn and Sinnoh! And they're some of the coolest people I know~!"

* * *

 ** _And that's where we'll end it for now. It's been a hot minute since I've written, like, anything story wise, and thought I'd have it in me to write more, but, looking over at the word count made me think otherwise, especially for a first chapter. Honestly, including every protagonist introduction in one chapter? That's a little much._**

 ** _I don't know when I'll update again, but I'll probably look to pumping out chapter 2 once my commissions are all done._**


	2. Chapter 2

**(Update, ending redone. Hated it. But I don't anymore, so.)**

 **Fun fact, this was gonna be part of the first chapter, but I thought it'd be too long. Hello again, it's been months and I suddenly remembered I had this story, so here I am, writing another chapter.**

 **I've been at this on and off for like a week, but I finished about half of it tonight cause I wanted it done. My wrists kinda hurt because of it. But that's just how I know I did a job well done, and wrote the longest chapter I've ever written in my life.**

* * *

With every glance over the sheet, a woman longs for the moment in her life before she had checked the mail. Literally, she didn't much care where she jumped in time. Battle against the Primals, fighting the eco-terrorists who somehow failed science class, some point before sje confronted her father; honestly, she didn't care as long as it wasn't this very exact moment.

No matter how many tines she checked, the words hadn't changed. She was half tempted to tear the damn thing up and pretend she hadn't seen it; however, she knew there would be one thing, or person, who would hound her on this till the day she died. Then, they would die too in order to hound her from beyond the grave.

A sudden obnoxious buzz, accompanied by the sound of a contradictory soothing harp echoes throughout the room and snaps the woman from her thoughts. Her eyes dart to her phone beside her and immediately checks the ID...

"Speak o' th' fuckin' devil..."

As soon as she accepts the call, the other end on the line speaks.

"Good evening, Sapphire, how ar-

"Cut th' shit. Whaddya want?"

Or, at least, he attempted to.

Despite the hostility from the woman, it appeared the other party was more than capable of laughing it off. "Always so hostile," he began, "are you ever happy to see anyone?"

"Jus' not you. Whaddya want?"

Sapphire could hear a soft hum over the line. As she always did when talking to this man. She'd think he'd get that she just wants him to get to the point, since she was never the type to enjoy much small talk, especially not with him. Despite this, he would always stall as much time as possible.

"Let's see," he began, "I believe you received a special invitation in the mail?"

"So this is your idea?!" Sapphire spat. "I'm ain't even champ no more! Why th' hell would I wanna go?"

"Well, you know me. Always so busy." Sapphire almost wanted to shout 'Bullshit,' but the man continued before she got a chance. "With my father's passing, I have to take over Devon Corporation, and my hands are tied with work. I can't attend no matter how wonderful it sounds."

"Ya could've sent anyone else y'know! Ya could've sent Merma-"

" _Wallace_ is currently preparing for a master contest," the man retorts.

Sapphire bit her lip. One option down. Before she opened her mouth to speak, the man continued.

"And while Wally is indeed formidable by your descriptions, the only way he would be accepted is by champion recommendation; however, I'm not quite able to make that call in good faith. I've never battled him, remember?"

A heavy sigh parts Sapphire's lips, and she slumps back into her couch. Her head hangs low and she refuses to look at the phone.

What could she do? After what appeared to be a couple years of freedom, she had been constantly pushed back into chains, only unlocked when the marionette's strings are attached as a safe measure. It had been like this since she was young. It was all she could remember.

Perhaps her freedom was only a false one. Perhaps that's why she was called out of retirement 6 months prior. Perhaps that's why she was being called again.

"Are you still with me?"

"I need a minute, Stone."

The man paused for a moment, before he got a devious idea, something he knew for sure would rustle Sapphire. He chuckles softly, before speaking again.

"If you're that against it, I can just send Birch in your place; however, that would mean you concede that he is the better trainer."

A sudden bang echoing from the other side of the phone caused him to jump from his seat. Before he could even ask, the call dropped.

Sapphire hadn't crushed her phone, but she had put a rather large crack in her coffee table. Her chest heaved with every breath she took. She attempted to tell herself to calm down, but it was no use. To even be offered an ultimatum so insulting made her absolutely livid. While she didn't take much pride in being a trainer, no matter how skilled she was, she would never let anyone tell her that she's worse at it than Ruby Birch.

* * *

 _"What are you doing in my room?"_

 _As soon as she had stepped inside, she immediately ran into the boy she was asked to look for. But, she wasn't all too excited for this upcoming exchange. She realized she should have knocked instead of barging in a little too late. The boy had immediately raised his head from his notebook and stared at her from across the room expectantly, and curiously. The girl looked back down the hall and the stairs below before turning her head back to the boy._

 _"Yer mom needs ya," she stated, "said somethin' 'bout dinner." It took a moment to register, but the response coming wasn't the one the girl expected._

 _"You're our new neighbors, right? Norman's kid?" He stood slowly from his seat as he spoke. His brow furrows as the girl nods. "Oh. I didn't know you were a girl. Dad said you were a leader's kid, so I assumed you'd be a guy."_ _The girl grit her teeth. She hated comments like that. Was it worth holding her tongue? She had better decide quick, because the boy was making his way towards her, obviously unaware of her discomfort. He extends his hand to shake, and continues to speak. "Anyways, hey neighbor. Name's Ruby. Ruby Birch." The girl reluctantly took his hand, but an idea quickly came to her mind, and she began to squeeze._

 _Harder, and harder._

 _It was fairly obvious to see that Ruby was attempting to keep his composure, but the girl kept smiling at him. "Sapphire. Sapphire Haruka." Her voice held firm, and she began to squeeze tighter. Ruby dropped to his knees and squealed, before Sapphire finally let go. Hopefully, she proved her point on her being just as tough. This wasn't a scenario new to her, and they had all ended the same. She took special care of that._

 _Ruby slowly stood to his feet, shaking his hand and sucking air in through his teeth. He tried his best to force a smile. "T-that's some handshake ya got there. You a trainer too?" He takes a moment to examine the girl before shaking his head. Before she could respond, he spoke again. "Nope. Doesn't seem like it. Not a single pokeball on ya." Sapphire shrugged in response. Ruby smiled at her before continuing. "Y'know I can catch you one if you want."_

 _"Pass."_

 _"Wha?"_

 _"I said pass. Think I need yer help? Not in a million years." Sapphire had quickly dropped all pretenses. There was no more polite. Ruby probably didn't realize he was making her angry with all of these attempts at hand holding, but she was always one to have trouble explaining instead of swinging. Ruby didn't know why this was making her upset. He couldn't have known. Well, he could have. Technically._

 _She was confusing herself with this._

 _"Well, if you say so." With that, Ruby made his way out of his room before stopping at the doorway to turn back to her. "You guys are staying for dinner, right? It'll be great, just uh," there's a momentary pause as Ruby glances back to Sapphire, "try not to break anything." Sapphire remained silent. That... was one thing she couldn't get upset about._

 _..._

 _"So, dad gave you a pokemon?"_

 _"What about it?"_

 _Ruby smirked at Sapphire, causing the girl to raise a brow. "Well, you know when two trainers' eyes meet, they gotta battle." He stands up quickly from his seat on the grass, reaching for his pocket to grab a single pokeball at his hip, and presenting it to Sapphire. "I'll teach you a thing or two about what it means to be a trainer since I have a head start."_

 _Sapphire assumed that was code for, 'I'll go easy on you,' and those words lit a fire in her soul that threatened to engulf the forest in which they stood. She quickly reached for her own pokeball, and tossed it into the air. With a flash of white, flickering embers danced across the wind and warmed the air around them. Emerging from the flames was a torchic. The bird let out a soft chirp, spotted the other trainer, and quickly got into a stance._

 _"Hold nothin' back, or Nurse Joy an't gon' fix what I do t' ya."_

 _Ruby's smirk never drops, and the boy tosses his ball. With a flash of white, a cool, salty breeze accompanies a small sphere of water. The sphere breaks and engulfs the grass below. Out emerges a mudkip, already prepared to take this chance to fight. "You've got spirit, Sapphire. But let's see how long that lasts."_

 _It lasted the entire battle._

 _Ruby was, for lack of a better word, bewildered. Not once had he lost in his life, but here he was, staring at his fainted mudkip with a torchic standing triumphantly over them. Sapphire, a trainer with not nearly as much experience as him, had just beaten him with relative ease. He briefly pondered how that was even possible as he returned his partner. Then, a lightbulb went off in his head. While Sapphire was congratulating her torchic, Ruby spoke._

 _"Dang, you really are Norman's kid. I guess even if you are a beginner trainer, you probably have a lot of his advice under your belt." Sapphire immediately stopped celebrating. She opened her mouth to speak, but Ruby didn't give her a chance. "Anyway, I'm heading back home now. Gotta report to dad about my findings."_

 _"Hold on a-"_

 _"Oh right," he stops for a moment to turn back to Sapphire. "Next time won't go as great for you. Like it or not, you're my rival now." And with that exchange, he was gone._

 _"But I don't even..." Sapphire's sentence faded into the wind as Ruby faded into the distance. The one time she attempted to speak up about something bugging her, he doesn't even allow her to get a word out._

* * *

As many memories of their first encounter flooded the rivers in her head, Sapphire came to one conclusion; between the decision of being death or sending the message that Ruby Birch could ever dream of being better, she would rather die.

So, with a soft sigh, she picked her phone back up. It was time to make a few calls. She scrolled through her contact list and stopped above a name. She briefly wondered if they were available, racking her brain momentarily on if they were available or not. Her eyes glanced to the time in the top of her phone corner. 6:45PM. She had 15 minutes until they were off work, so she kept scrolling to a contact simply named, "Don't Answer 1," and called. The phone rang, and rang, and rang, and sweet arceus above, what was taking them so long to answer?

 _He was literally just fuckin' talkin' t' me._

Click. "Are you feeling a bit better?" The line had been picked up, a hint of concern laced the man's tone. "All I heard was a loud slam and then your line-"

"Can it, Steven, I got somethin' t' say." She paused for a moment, a soft sigh escaping her lips before she continued. "Steven, I'll do it."

There's a clap from the other end of the call. "Wonderful!" He exclaims. "I'm glad that-"

"Comin' for my title back, too. Tomorrow. 3:00PM. Get it televised too. Got somethin' planned that day? Cancel." Click. Without giving him a chance to argue, she hung up. Another glance back to her phone. 6:46PM. She needed to kill 14 minutes.

She briefly looked to the TV, wondering if she should watch anything before deciding against it just as quickly. The only shows she liked never came on today, and she never saw movies she had always wanted to see while channel surfing until they were practically over already. And that was if she even found them to begin with. God, the movie guide was such a cesspool of vapid crap. She couldn't even hate watch most of it.

Her eyes briefly spotted the Nintendo Switch beside her TV, and briefly pondered playing a game. She never found the time for it in the recent days, so she tended to stick to lighter games. However, that didn't stop her from picking up Breath of the Wild on launch day. She'd rather die than pass that up, and she finished it later in the year. Another playthrough of that sounded tempting, but she didn't have the energy for that. She didn't want to play Splatoon either. The Octo Expansion missions were pissing her off.

She glanced back at her clock. Barely a couple seconds had passed, so she wasn't sure why she thought the clock would be anything different. Time only flowed quickly when she needed a moment to catch her breath, just to spite her. Time moved as slowly as possible whenever she needed it to move at light speed. Who the hell was in charge of the flow of time? Pucci and Made in Heaven?

... Pause, what the hell _was_ she? Some kind of geek?

 _Closeted, but yes,_ she told herself with a soft roll of her eyes. Her interests definitely developed from taking care of her younger brother, but at least after she moved to Hoenn, it definitely helped her make one of her only friends. The other being Wallace, technically, but his knowledge of geek culture began and stopped at Star Wars.

The thought of Wallace gave her an idea. If she was going to take on Steven, she might have to shake the rust off. As much as she hated to admit it, you don't become champion without being strong; and while she had never had trouble with him before, she hasn't a clue how much growth he's had since he mastered mega evolution. Her eyes glanced down to the fanny pack she had set on the coffee table.

It was do or die, time. Her sparring partner wasn't off work yet, and she needed to get ready. Quick. She wouldn't allow a lackluster performance. Up from her couch she hopped, and quickly grabbed her fanny pack and headed outside. She needed to head to the abandoned lighthouse by the beach. It was the most spacious area, and it was difficult to see her working from the coast.

Lilycove's salty spring breeze tickled her skin and engulfed her taste, along with her sense of smell. She always loved this city. From the first time she stepped into the city, about 11 years ago, she could tell that it felt as close to home as it could get.

It was relaxing, and god knows that's what she needed the most right now.

* * *

The crowd's cheers erupted from the stadium stands. Sapphire had honestly gotten surprised at exactly how many people skipped work just to see this match. She knew that Hoenn had treated her like the second coming of Jesus Christ, but she didn't expect to hear thousands of people standing before her after all these years, still chanting her name at the top of their lungs.

"YYYEEEEOOOWWW!" The sound of the announcer cut through the crowd's chanting, almost enough to make Sapphire recoil. "AND IT'S OVER! WE FINALLY HAVE OUR ANSWER OF WHO WINS! THE UNSTOPPABLE FORCE, OR THE IMMOVABLE OBJECT! WITH AN ABSOLUTELY SCAAAATHING 4-0 KNOCKOUT, THE SIREN OF HOENN, SAPPHIRE HARUKA, HAS EMERGED VICTORIOUS AGAINST THE ROCK HARD DEFENSES OF STEVEN STOOOOONE!"

This revelation appeared to make the crowd cheer harder, and Sapphire wasn't exactly sure how that was possible. She wasn't all too keen on it, for she had not a good memory of being in the spotlight like this. However, as she stared across the field to see Steven's fainted metagross revert back to it's normal form, as her blaziken stood tall before her and Steven's confidence had been forced to modesty, Sapphire felt that for the moment, it was worth it.

Before she even recognized what she was doing, her legs began to carry her forward. Her blaziken turned to their trainers as their mega evolved status finally wore off. As Sapphire grew closer, the blaziken began their own walk towards her. As they met, Sapphire hopped up to give her partner a high five, which they returned.

"Nice work, Ash." A soft smile crossed her face. Ash rubbed the back of their head sheepishly before patting Sapphire's head and ruffling her hair, which she playfully pushed away. "Oi, oi, hands of th' merch."

Through the cheers of the crowd, Sapphire could distinctly hear Steven's clapping as he made his way across the field. What had started today as a confident man had become a humble man, his gaze soft, and his voice just as much. "That was a wonderful battle, Sapphire," he states. Sapphire's smile faded, her cheeks puff out and her arms cross as she averts her gaze.

"Thanks," she mumbled.

Steven stared at her for a moment, before clearing his throat and waving to the audience. "Ladies, gentlemen, and those beyond the binary, I give you, Hoenn's new champion!"

"Yeah yeah whatever," She quickly returned her blaziken and began walking in the other direction. Yeesh, when did she become so asocial and introverted? Yeah, Steven wasn't her favorite person to talk to, but that, coupled with the constant chanting had drained her. Or, maybe it was the strain of mega evolution. Either way, she needed a nap.

The locker room within the stadium was relatively empty. Some of the employees wished her congratulations, and she thanked them, but she kept moving. Paparazzi would be here soon, and she had enough social interaction for one day.

But as she stepped out of the locker rooms, a voice calling out to her almost seemed to rejuvenate her. Just a bit, but t was enough to get her through at least one more conversation. From across the hall, she could see a boy with emerald green hair waving to her. His excitement is subtle, but his happiness still gave Sapphire a comforting warmth.

"Wally!" She skips over to him and pulls the boy into a hug, which he graciously returned.

"You did it! I knew you could do it!" He exclaimed, his grip around the girl tightening as they took each others hands and began to hop up and down. At least, for a moment. Sapphire let's go almost as soon as she grabbed on. God, she really _did_ need a nap. Wally's smile faltered, his eyes slowly filling with concern as he watches Sapphire fall flat on her ass. "Hey, you okay there?"

"Mhm," Sapphire's quick to respond, but her words come out as a yawn. "Jus' a bit tired. Was never all tha' good keepin' sync when mega evolvin', not like you."

Wally couldn't help but chuckle at that. "It's not perfect yet, but yeah. It's about the _only_ thing about battles I'm better at." He lays beside her and stays silent for a moment before he continues. "But that said, you did amazing out there. If you told me after today that you hadn't had a serious battle in a long time, I wouldn't have believed you."

Sapphire couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. But yer th' one who helped me out yesterday. I ain't battled anyone since I-" Sapphire catches herself, allowing a brief silence to fall upon the two. A sudden chill ran up her spine, and she shook her head. _Think of something else._ "Since Zinnia, actually."

"Geez, that's a good 3 years worth of rust to shake off!" Wally's head had shot up almost as soon as the word 'Zinnia' had parted his friend's lips. "There's no _way_ that shaking it off was all because of me. Most of that has to be muscle memory. I lost to her, remember?"

"Whatever. Ya got caught off guard. And yer Gallade got a disadvantage against 'er dragons. Mega evolved or not."

"Hey, you're the one who said a trainer like me wouldn't need to worry about type disadvantages because I'm good enough to avoid getting hindered by them."

"Right. But as much as it kills me to admit, she was like nothin' we'd ever experienced."

Wally couldn't help but furrow a brow as he stood to his feet. "You said she intimidated you at a moment of weakness with something you hadn't seen before," he began. "All of Hoenn saw what Magma and Aqua's return brought. Those admins meant business."

"And it was Zinnia that told 'em 'bout Primal Reversion t' begin with. I barely handled _that_." If Sapphire's head could sink back any farther, it would have descended past the earth's mantle. The entire situation wasn't something she had fully gotten over. Wally could sense it as well, even if Sapphire wasn't curling into a ball. While it had been a long time since it was requested, Wally had sat through many a sleepless night of Sapphire's, talking through her panic attacks. Sensing the need to change the topic, Wally cleared his throat.

"You know, this place is gonna be flooded soon, Ms. Champ. You wanna-"

"Yeah just, uhh, gimme a sec."

Wally helped Sapphire to her feet and they walked out of the lobby, shoulder to shoulder. As they made their way out, Sapphire swore she could see the newscaster pulling into the parking lot. She exchanged a glance with Wally, and the two of them made a mad sprint for Wally's car. If they could get out before the crowd boxed them in, they'd be perfectly safe.

And safe they were. The two successfully made it out of the parking lot just as the crowd began to pour out of the stadium. Sapphire swore she could see the newscaster hounding Steven as they pulled out of the lot. He seemed a bit uncomfortable. Sapphire made a mental note that this may be the one thing she has in common with him.

"Anyway, where to now?" Wally asked, breaking the silence between the two. Sapphire had to ponder for a moment. She was very tired, so she would rather head back to the hotel room and take a nap, but she assumed that wouldn't be happening for a bit. If they were already out, Wally definitely wanted to do something to.

"Maybe we can grab food?"She inquires with a furrowed brow. Wally shook his head in response.

"Nah, people would start crowding you, and I know that makes you anxious." He had a point. Sapphire wasn't one for crowds, and people coming up to her at dinner asking for autographs was definitely one of the more annoying things she didn't miss when she previously resigned from champion. Now, she had to expect that in spades. Again.

"Then I got nothin' 'cept goin' back t' the hotel 'n sleeping. I can just cook us somethin' later anyhow." With that, the car fell silent once again. The drive from the Battle Tower to Mauville wasn't too bad, but it would still be about an hour or two depending on traffic. At least they were one of the first out of the parking lot, else that would have been an infuriating wait.

"Hey."

Sapphire turned her head as Wally once again cut through the silence. "So, if you don't mind me asking," he began, "what did you have in mind with returning to the champ position? Last I remember, you hated it."

"Damn right I do," her response came quicker than Wally anticipated. "Bastard Steven forced m' hand. Said I had t' go t' this tournament in Unova. But ain't much a trainer no more, so he thought he'd be a wise ass 'n make me try t' say Birch was a better trainer so he could send 'im off t' it instead."

"Woah, yikes!" Wally immediately pumped the breaks. It appeared that someone's truck had decided to merge lanes without using their turn signals, and almost crashed into Wally's car. Said boy stuck his head out the window and began to 'scream' at the other driver, but they definitely weren't paying attention. With a soft sigh, he keeps on driving, momentarily forgetting that his friend had been interrupted. "Right, and Ruby Birch was the guy who never beat you and then thought you needed tips before your first fight with Steven, isn't he?"

"Exactly.'N he wouldn't send ya 'cause he said somethin' 'bout not knowin' how good ya were." With a clap of her hands and a soft yawn, she continues. "So, told that kidney stone lovin' weirdo that if I'm gettin' forced t' do his job again, I'm gonna take it from 'im and do things my way this time. Startin' with you."

Wally paused as the car slowed to a stop. "This traffic is exhausting," he sighs. His attention falls back to Sapphire moments later. "Sorry about that. Uh, what do you mean by 'starting with me'?"

"I mean, I want ya t' come with me. T' Unova. Yer like th' only person in th' world I even like brawlin' with t' begin with."

Wally couldn't help but smile at her words. Momentarily, he forgot that the two were stuck in the most ungodly traffic jam known to mankind. In that moment, there were no cars moving as slow as molasses, no asshole trucks that don't understand that cutting in front of smaller cars without signaling was pretty shitty.

"I'd love to. We could, like, meet in the finals and split the prize no matter who wins!"

"Pfft, fat chance. Ya can keep th' cash. I don't need it. Vacation time? That'd be great, but yer the one that needs all th' money." Sapphire leaned back in her seat as the cars before them began to move once again. "I'm th' fuckin' champion of Hoenn now. Long as I take care o' my kin, I get what's mine." A soft yawn escapes her once again and she points up ahead. "Take th' next exit, by the way."

Wally once again furrowed a brow. While he did as told, he was still curious about one thing. "Well, what is it you want?" He inquires.

"Freedom."

Wally had heard this response once before, but he still wasn't exactly sure what Sapphire meant by it. The last time he asked though, Sapphire claimed it was 'too stressful to talk about in the moment,' so he chose to fall silent once again. He would rather not ruin her mood.

Upon slowing to a stop, Wally began fumbling with the radio, along with the auxiliary cord. Sapphire kept her head focused on whatever was out of the window, until the sudden familiar chime of cymbals flooded her ears. She immediately perked up and exchanged a smirk with Wally. They both knew what to say, when to say it, and most importantly to scream it at the top of their lungs.

 _BREAKDOWN, BREAKDOWN!_ _BREAKDOWN, BREAKDOWN! LISTEN,_  
 _BREAKDOWN, BREAKDOWN!_ _BREAKDOWN, BREAKDOWN!  
3, 2, 1, LET'S GO!_

 _SHINING! JUSTICE! MEBAE TE!  
BRAND-NEW BED TOWN,  
KOSA SURU IBUKI_

 _MSAKI KARA SHOKAZE,  
TONNERU NUKE TETTO E,  
HIKAREAI KOMICHU NI MAYOIKOMU_

As Wally continued to sing, Sapphire's phone began to buzz. She furrows a brow and unlocks her phone. Her mentions were blowing up. Of course. She seemed a bit curious as to what people on Twitter were saying about her, so she took the moment to scroll. Wally hadn't seemed to notice her, but it wasn't too important. Sapphire was quick to notice it was either two things; people absolutely praising her, or the occasional troll saying that "the shark bitch isn't even that good."

But one person stood out, and it definitely amused her. Almost as soon as she had tweeted out her response, another reply came in. For once, a back and forth seemed interesting, and back she spoke.

* * *

 **Twinleaf Town, Sinnoh**

A woman couldn't help but smirk as she stared idly at what she had just tweeted. It wasn't usually like her to say something so rude about a previous champion, but this time, she couldn't help herself. She was glad that she didn't.

Her head falls back against her pillow and she allows her eyes to drift to a close. It had been such a wonderful evening. Every year, her hometown would hold a festival to mark the beginning of spring; and while her town was small, it was a staple that proved that Twinleaf never failed to be lively. It had been such a long time since she had visited, but she always made time for this.

She always felt a wave nostalgia upon entering her old bedroom. A few years after becoming champion, she had moved away in order to study closer to her mentor, Cynthia. Learning the ins and outs of leadership, along with what measures to take to ensure the best for Sinnoh had taken most of her time. She was only under the helm of Sinnoh's champ officially for over a year, though she technically sat on the throne for 8. Which each visit back to her home, she almost couldn't believe that it had been so long since she had sat in her room, watching a report on the elusive Red Gyarados, when her friend barged into her room and told her go with him to Lake Verity. So much had happened.

It was silent, aside from the ticking of her clock, the soft buzz of her laptop, and the hum of the washing machine down the hall. She assumed that her mother must be out of the house by this hour, but decided to double check her clock. 6:00PM? Definitely still out setting up.

 _Perhaps..._

Her hand reaches for the bag beside her bed. She unzips one of the smaller pouches, fumbling around in it before she pulls out a dusk ball. It quivers almost as soon as she touches it. She couldn't help but smile. This one always seemed to know that they would be let out, long before she tossed the ball. And toss it she did. For a moment, the ball flashed a dark purple, before falling to a pitch black. From her lamp, to the glare of her laptop, to the soft shine form her window, all light in her room had disappeared. Slowly, each began to flicker back on, and floating in the middle of her room was a mythical pokemon, only previously heard of in stories.

The woman rose from her bed and whistled, causing the pokemon to whip their head around. "Darkrai," she spoke softly, "I know it's been long. How are you doing?" Darkrai wasn't a talkative pokemon, and in the years they had been by their trainer's side, they had never made a single sound. Instead, Darkrai would react through simple gestures. For example, as their trainer spoke, they moved closer to her and placed their hand atop her head and began to ruffle her hair. The woman chuckled. "Doin' pretty good, I guess."

She reaches for another pocket of her bag and pulls out a yellow berry before handing it to Darkrai. The dark type stares at it for a moment before turning around. The woman couldn't help but roll her eyes. Not even once had she seen the pokemon eat. She grew ever curious by the day is they even possessed a mouth. With every attempt she previously made to find out, Darkrai would vanish into any shadow they could find. It was a secret that kept her up at night.

Upon finishing, Darkrai turned back around, and stared. The woman intently returns their gaze as her mind races for a topic to speak of. This was something common between the two. Darkrai was rarely let out with her other team members, for they always felt uneasy around the dark type. They weren't too much of a playful type anyhow. But, unlike her other teammates, Darkrai wasn't able to vocalize their thoughts, meaning she had to do all of the work.

"So, uh," she paused for a moment. Sweet Arceus, the moment she thought she found a topic, it slips away from her! Wait, wait wait, it's coming back to her. "They're having a tournament over in Unova. Inviting all the champions. Had one 3 years back, but I wasn't ready to attend." She falls back on to the bed, and Darkrai furrows a brow... somehow. "Cynthia told me that there were a lot of strong trainers. Enough that she didn't even win. And she's, like, the _strongest_ trainer I know." There's another brief pause, before she continues. "Well, besides Barry. But, y'know, we're not talking about him right now.

"This year, I'm taking that win. I promised Cynthia I would. And, like, I wasn't so sure I'd do it for a sec, but I talked to someone about it earlier, and I kinda got inspired to-"

A sudden slam of the front door downstairs sent the woman into a panic. She could practically hear the new person flying up the stairs. With quick thinking, she grabbed Darkrai's pokeball, said, "Sorry!" before tossing it and returning the dark type. The ball landed on the floor just as a new figure bursts into her room.

"Yo Dawn I saw your house's lights go out for a second, and it wasn't even like your average every day darkness it was like advanced darkness like you couldn't even see the light coming n from the sun which is super weird cause unless it was like a black hole in your-"

"Barry." She had hoped from her seat and pressed a single finger to his mouth. "Remember to slow down."

"Okay but can you explain what just happened because light doesn't just disappear into the pitch black void like it just di-"

"Barry, let's go for a walk." Before the boy could even protest, Dawn was out the door. Controlling her hyperactive friend was a skill she learned early into their companionship. He was excitable, and in a small town such as Twinleaf, one learned to make any friend that seemed nice enough. The other kids in town were either much too young to be interested in what Dawn and Barry were, or were assholes. Those were the breaks.

The sunset kissed Dawn's skin as soon as she stepped outside. The spring breeze which accompanied it tickled her hair. However, as she stood and stared at the sky above, she had completely forgotten about Barry. Said blond rammed into her backside and knocked her face first into the dirt below. A soft groan came from both of them, Dawn's muffled by the ground, and Bary's by his face.

"What's the deal? I'm fining you 10 million for standing in my way!" This, however, was still a trait of Barry that Dawn wished would change. Dawn practically flew from the spot she had fallen and pointed her finger in his face.

"It's not happening, it won't happen, it will never happen, stop _trying_ to swindle me!" Her scowl cut deep, and Barry chuckled nervously, slowly stepping back and frantically waving his hands as if to say, 'calm down.' Dawn took a step forward and flicked Barry's forehead, making him recoil and grit his teeth. Dawn, however, smiled. "Now then, race you to the lake?"

The word 'race' practically caused steam to erupt from Barry's nose and ears. He was a machine, no. He was _the_ machine. Those Nascar drivers in Unova, that comic hero named The Flash, and Sonic the Hedgehog could eat their hearts out at the sight of his speed.. The flicker of his burning determination evident in his eyes, off he dashed towards Route 201, completely leaving Dawn in the dust. Said woman watched as he disappeared from her view in seconds, before deciding to skip after him.

* * *

Dawn caught up with Barry just on the outskirts of Twinleaf. Barry had been impatiently tapping his foot and pointing to his watch, claiming he had been waiting for what felt like hours. She knew he was just being over dramatic, that was just typical Barry fashion. Together, they walked towards the lake. Occasionally, one would point out a wild pokemon they'd spot, stare, and then keep moving. Not even halfway to the lake, and it was already dark out.

"Hey," Dawn said, breaking a rather long streak of silence, "Do you remember that night we tried to go looking for some rare pokemon in the lake?"

"I wanted a gyarados specifically, but like, a black one, but yeah."

"Wait, why a black one specifically?"

Barry stopped dead in his tracks. "Listen," he began, "there are two constants in the universe. Death, and the colors orange and black. Imagine how _sick_ that would be!"

Dawn playfully rolls her eyes. "Alright alright, sure. But, I was just thinking that it's been a crazy long time since we did that." The woman stopped as she spotted a lone bidoof making their way towards her. Dawn kneels down to softly pat it's head, earning a happy cry from the beaver. "So much changed, y'know?"

"Yeah, but that's mostly on you," Barry pats Dawn on the back before he continued. "You're the one bringing on all these changes. Well, you and that one lady. Cynthia, I think. Anyway. Your ordinances are pretty great in my opinion. Hell, you two brought down the rate of homelessness, and I didn't even know champions could _do_ that! _"_

Dawn couldn't help but snort at that. "Well, what other governing bodies do you think exist in the world?"

"Weird how all it takes is for someone to beat you and then undo literally all the progress you made isn't that weird I think it's weird like what if someone like Cyrus showed up again and just did everything by the books and we couldn't stop 'em technically without-"

"Okay, okay, calm down." Dawn's voice held firm as she raised a hand to cover Barry's mouth. "It's not like I don't have a council. We have representatives from every province in the region. Did you not know that?" Barry slowly blinked. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words would come out, and soon closed. That act alone was enough to confirm Dawn's accusation. "Geez, get a clue before you start getting a spook."

Barry snorted upon hearing such a cheesy line. "Hey, if I gotta know anything I'll just ask you." A silence falls over the two once more, before Barry clears his throat. "Anyway, what were you getting at?"

Dawn paused for a moment, placing her hand against her chin as a soft hum escaped her. "I think I was gonna try and thank you for sticking with me for so long. Cause, y'know, don't think anyone else would've."

Barry shrugged his shoulders. "We're best buds. Been that way since we were 6. That wasn't even small town polite." Slowly, he crouched down and began to pet the bidoof as well. Said bidoof became overexcited with the sweet double pet action, enough to make Barry snort. "You were cool and liked games." Suddenly, Dawn started giggling uncontrollably, Barry stopped petting the bidoof as his head slowly turned to his companion, squinting his eyes. "You okay there?"

Through a fit of her chuckles, Dawn managed to choke something out. "Y-yes, I play video games."

"Oh sweet Arceus no-"

"Y-yes, I'm a girl."

"Dawn, I swear I will leave you here in the middle of-"

"Y-yes, I have feet!"

Barry immediately hopped up from his squat and began to walk away. "I'm done. Bye." He stated, despite Dawn's immediate hop to grab hold of his leg to prevent him from leaving.

"N-no, wait, stay! I'm sorry for being a fake gamer girl!"

"You are doing the exact opposite of making me want to stay."

"I'm messing with you!" Dawn let out the ugliest wheeze Barry had ever heard. He briefly wondered why he started sending her such surreal memes in the middle of the night. She only remembered the ones he thought were the weirdest, and could probably dedicate an hour or two to just finding new material to build off of it. No matter how many times she begged, Barry did his best to keep walking.

At least, until Dawn spoke once more. "If I let you come with me to Unova, will you stop?" And stop, Barry did.

"I'm listening."

She surprisingly allowed her laughter to die down quicker than Barry was used to, just long enough for her to start crawling back to the bidoof and resume petting. "I'm allowed to vouch for any trainer I feel is champion class since I'm in charge now, so I'm gonna, like, want someone to come with me so I'm not just around a bunch of strangers. You can enter and battle, and if you win, you get a bunch of prizes." Barry blinked. He didn't quite seem convinced. Dawn lets out a soft sigh before continuing. "If you enter, one of the prizes is cash."

"Sold."

"You greedy jerk."

"Hey, money says a thousand words."

A silence once again fell over the two. It didn't last for long, though, because Barry once again cleared his throat. "Y'know, festival probably started already, and we'll be wicked late to try all the good food stalls if we don't get back."

Food. The promise of food was enough to get Dawn to stop petting the bidoof and hop to her feet. Twinleaf Festival foods were the best around the world, and it was Dawn's sworn mission to try _all_ the dishes offered in a single night. Many a year she had been handed a crushing defeat by her stomach tapping out like a pansy at the tail end, but this year would be different. She could feel it in her heart. Her entire life had been leading up to this moment. The training, the championship, watching reality fall apart, _all_ lead up to this very task.

"Let's go." Off she dashed, much quicker than Barry had ever seen her before. Feeling his title of fastest in Twinleaf was threatened, he quickly took off after her, leaving a bidoof behind to stare off longingly into the distance. It already missed the wholesome double pet action.

* * *

"So, your tweets today."

Dawn slowly looked up from the plate of noodles she had been stuffing her face with to pay attention to Barry, who had just sat down with his own bowl. She didn't reply at first, and continued to slurp. This had been her 10th dish in the evening, and she showed no signs of slowing down. Barry was used to it by now, but when he first saw just how much she could eat, he was convinced that she was ripped straight out of a cartoon.

"Hey, swallow."

Dawn did as told and swallowed most of the bowl. Barry watched intently as the noodles disappeared from it, leaving only the meat behind. Once she swallowed, she immediately reached for the meat: however, Barry used his own chopsticks to block hers. Dawn seemed legitimately irritated by this action. It was an unnecessary roadblock on her grind to success. "You have exactly 10 seconds to move your hand out of my bowl." She hissed. "10. 9. 8-"

"Woah woah woah, chill!" Barry retorts, standing his ground and refusing to move. "It's just food. It can wait. I need to ask you about what you said to Sapphire today on Twitter."

...Silence.

"7. 6. 5-"

"What's going on folks?"

The sound of a new voice seemed to knock the hostility out of Dawn, and catch Barry's attention quickly after. Both turned their heads to see another man sit down, holding his own bowl of ramen. He smiles softly towards the both of them, and the smile is returned.

"Lucas, how you doin?" Barry asked, playfully slugging the other's shoulder, causing him to wince a bit.

"Oh, I'm alright," He says, just before he sucked in air between his teeth. He takes a deep breath and rubs his arm before continuing. "Just, uh, been taking care of some stuff. Some starter pokemon came in a couple days ago, and boy, they're a handful."

"Well, only a really awesome trainer can handle the might of a chimchar, am I right?" Barry had hopped on to the wooden table and began to flex, earning stares from surrounding families and vendors, and Dawn pretending not to know him as she softly told him to get down. Lucas couldn't help but laugh. These two were always such a lively bunch.

"I'm sure the trainer coming tomorrow will enjoy whichever one they pick," he began, "buuut if they're smart, they'll choose piplup."

"C'mon, turtwig is clearly the superior option. Heck, which of the three of us ended up as champion?" Dawn decided to play along and throw in her two cents. As long as it was playful, it couldn't hurt, could it? That's how she felt, but Barry took this as a challenge.

"Oh, don't worry. I'll pull that from you one day. You're just a little bit tougher than me, by like. A millimeter. But I'll close that gap in no time!" Barry cupped his hands to his mouth, and began to shout. "Hear that, world? I'm gonna take Ms. Champ down the first chance I get!" Dawn responded to this declaration by slamming her head against the table. Lucas, however, just laughed harder.

"You guys are great," he managed to choke out. His laughter calms for a moment, and his facial features soften. Once he speaks again, his tone is much more somber. "I wish the professor could have been around for this."

The table fell silent, the smiles on everyone's faces fading instantaneously. The mention of the late Professor Rowan was one thing Barry and Dawn hadn't expected. Said Professor had passed away recently of late stage dementia. Lucas stated to have begun seeing the signs of early stages as soon as Dawn became champion. A story he had told Dawn was that on his way back from visiting her at the Hall of Fame, he drove right past his lab, despite Lucas standing outside and giving him directions on the phone. Getting him to admit he had a problem was tough enough, and each of them wished they never even had to.

Desperate to change the subject to something more lighthearted, Barry hopped down from the table and returned his attention to Dawn. "So, uh," he began, rubbing the back of his head as he spoke, "about those tweets to Sapphire?"

"Yeah, what about them?" Dawn's head flew up, equally eager to hop on to literally any other topic that wasn't the death of one of her mentors.

"You really think you can take her on?" Barry inquires. "She's like, supposedly crazy tough. They said on the news once that she took down two legendary pokemon all by herself, within days of each other."

Dawn honestly felt offended. "Barry, buddy, you _do_ know I did the exact same thing right?"

"Yeah, but that took you 3 months."

"I keep telling you, I was only gone for what felt like 3 hours!"

As the two continued to bicker back and forth, Lucas began to do his own research, becoming intrigued at this mention of a tweet fight. Usually, Dawn wasn't one to get involved with petty squabbles, especially not with strangers. As he pulled up his phone and opened the Twitter app, he started to vaguely remember Dawn stating she had made friends with some other champions outside of the region. One of which asked her what she knew about pokemon that supposedly came from space. The name Sapphire was familiar, but Lucas only completely recognized her once he saw Dawn's tweet;

 _" sharpedomermaid beating Steven just to come to Unova is really important because we finally know for sure who was always the real champ."_

He couldn't help but snort at that. Steven Stone was a mixed bag. In his first years, Lucas heard from Rowan that he was loved by many, but around 11 or so years ago, he began to falter. He was bested by Sapphire, making headlines across the world. Many compared her to Red, a trainer around the same age who had just bested Lance and the infamous 5 Minute Champion just months before. Once Steven was bested, many stories of him neglecting his duties came to light, courtesy of Sapphire.

" _vespiqueenbee I been doin his job for years so I may as well take his title. He made it too easy."_

This tweet seemed to confirm Lucas' suspicions. Her profile picture looked similar to the girl that Dawn had showed Lucas a year or two back. He was fuzzy on the details of when, but now he knew that her allegedly doing Steven's work for him was true. Technically. At least, there was confirmed suspicion. With said suspicion out of the way, he kept reading on.

" _sharpedomermaid_ _I'm sure you'll find someone out here to give you a better challenge!"_

 _" vespiqueenbee Doubt it but yall can sure try."_

 _" sharpedomermaid Back up those words if you make it to the finals :3c"_

 _" vespiqueenbee I'll back 'em up if you don't wipe round 1."_

Lucas, at that point, had decided that no matter what he had scheduled already, he would push that aside in order to watch this brawl. He loved their confidence, the playfulness of their comebacks, the subtle flicker of determination radiating from each tweet. His eyes fall back to Dawn, who was now trapped in a headlock from Barry, getting noogies as she shouted at him to let go.

He hoped that this dork would win it all. No, he knew she would.

* * *

 **Lumiose City, Kalos**

A single foot tapped impatiently. A blonde woman waited as the time on her holocaster ticked away, occasionally looking back up to the baggage check. She had been waiting here for quite a bit, and she wasn't sure what had been taking so long. The plane had touched down damn near half an hour ago, and she knew it didn't take this long to get through the gate.

Just when she was about to up and leave, it appeared that who she was looking for finally managed to step into view. A person with long, black hair and dark skin. She almost didn't recognize them without the usual baseball cap, but all that mattered is that she was done waiting, and she could soon sit down in her car. Her legs were screaming at her. She waved towards them, but they didn't respond just yet. Right. They still needed their bags, after all... or bag, singular. She seemed surprised that they traveled so light. She couldn't begin to imagine fitting everything she needed into just one suitcase. Or, perhaps she was over packing.

Nah.

She blinked as the one she had been watching began to wave towards her. She waved back, and began to meet them halfway. With a soft smile, she spoke. "Well, long time no see, Mr. First Champ of-"

"Shhh," the boy practically flew to cover his friend's mouth, gazing around the airport momentarily before he continued. "I got hounded the moment I got off the plane since someone recognized me. Can we go, like, literally anywhere else first?" He begs. The girl quickly nods, knowing all too well what he was going through. She almost couldn't believe she had been so careless, considering she was disguised herself to avoid being noticed. She couldn't even imagine what would happen if they were spotted together. This section of the airport was already a bit crowded, and the thought of the swarm coming towards both of them sent a shiver up her spine. With that, the two quickly began to make their way to the exit.

From the exit, to the walk to her car, the two remained completely silent. They overheard many a conversation, from families reuniting, to tearful goodbyes between friends. It was a reminder for both of them that there was much to catch up on. And the moment the boy sat in the passenger seat after putting his bag in the back, they realized they could do just that.

"As I was saying," the older girl spoke, "long time no see, Mr. First Champ of Alola!" she smirks at him as she turns her key in the ignition. "Everyone was real shocked to hear that you were battling again, Sun."

Sun leaned back in his seat and slid his sunglasses off before responding. "It's been a trip. I kinda got hounded into giving it another try by my mother and Professor Kukui. I know that they meant well, but not gonna lie, kind of a dick move..." Sun began to trail off as he noticed that his friend had been staring at him. He squints a bit before he continues to speak. "Hey, Serena, you still with us?"

"When did your voice start dropping?" She inquired with furrowed brows.

Sun couldn't help but roll his eyes. "You know that I'm not 11 anymore, right?" His statement made Serena giggle a bit, which only made Sun roll his eyes harder. "I wasn't gonna be a kid forever, I don't even sound _that_ different."

"Give me a break, jerkface, it's been 3 years."

"Ahh, right, speaking of which..." Sun immediately unbuckled his seatbelt and began to rummage through the back seat, fumbling around with the zippers of his suitcase before pulling out a wrapped box. He hands the box to Serena with a soft smile. "Merry late 17th birthmas." His strange wish had earned a snort from Serena, but she was grateful none the less.

"Thanks, Sun," she smiled as she tore open the wrapping paper. Inside was a shoe box. Serena gasped and cupped her face with her hand. However, upon opening it, she saw a smaller box within. Serena wasn't sure what she expected. She slowly looked up at Sun with narrowed eyes, while Sun stared back with a smirk on his face.

"Go on."

"Shush, jerkface."

Her hands gripped the second box and opened it up, only for a third, smaller box to slide out of it and into her palm. If Serena squinted any harder, she swore her eyelids would rip in two. Sun had always been known for practical jokes like this. According to their mutual friend, Tierno, Sun had previously let loose 3 bunnelby marked 1, 2, and 4, into their old school. The staff spent the entire day looking for the third, and Sun was never punished for it, claiming to have been sick that day. In reality, he was just playing hookey.

Serene opened up the third box for a small, black box to fall out of it. Now, Serena was intrigued. She opened up the box and found a black ring with a purple gemstone. Serena's irritation was quickly replaced with joy. Without warning, she reached over and hugged the boy as tight as she possibly could, saying "thank you," over and over. Sun awkwardly patted Serena on the back in return, doing his absolute best to avert his gaze.

Upon letting go, she immediately slipped the ring on and stared at it's subtle shine in the streetlight creeping through the windows. It was the most beautiful gift she had ever received, and she was legitimately surprised _Sun_ of all people was the person to give it to her. Not that her other birthday gifts weren't nice, but she was definitely a young woman with expensive taste. Perhaps working as a model had spoiled her.

Just a little bit.

After she was finished admiring her ring, she began to pull out of her parking spot. Sun occupied himself by cleaning up the boxes and setting them in the back seat. A silence fell over the two as they made their way to the freeway, but it didn't last long.

"So," Sun began, "Where's everyone else? How're they doing?"

Serena turns her head momentarily, before looking back at the road. "Everyone else is back at my place, and they're trying to set everything up so we can have a party for your return. We know you don't do surprises," she paused for a moment, something clicking in her head making her suck in air through her teeth, "and I guess telling you right before counts as a surprise-"

"Little bit."

" _Anyway,_ " she continued, a bit forcefully, "they're all really excited to see you and hear about Alola. Especially Calem. He was really excited when he learned that you were coming back to visit before Unova. Your suggestion of us all riding together had him practically doing backflips."

Sun could practically see that in his head. Calem wasn't a very excitable person, but he was known to let loose around people he was comfortable with. Though, Sun was a bit surprised at exactly _how_ excited Calem was at the notion of a return to Kalos. But, he decided to brush that thought aside in favor of another; Unova.

"Speaking of which," Sun began, "you got an invite _too,_ right?"

Serena smirked. "You know it. Calem sent in that recommendation real quick. The three of us will be the first to represent our regions!"

"Right, right, Diantha couldn't go last time, could she?" Sun inquired. Serena shook her head. During the last champion class tournament, Diantha had been booked with movie shootings, and the investigation of Team Flare. She wished she could have gone, or at least sent one of her elites to represent. However, they were also preoccupied.

"Speaking of champs, though, guess who promoted me to the position of elite?"

Sun was dragged out of his thoughts almost immediately. He looked to Serena in surprise. "Wait, really?" He asked, a rare, slight shake of excitement laced into his voice. "Wait, wait, wait, who got the axe then?"

Serena let out a groan dripping with disgust. "After the Flare Investigation, it came to light that Malva was involved. Once Calem and Diantha found out, that was a wrap. She got booted out faster than you could say 'bye'. And come a year later, I became the new fire type specialist." She snapped her fingers and smirked. "Doin' a damn good job at it too!"

Sun took a moment to process the information. While it didn't surprise him too much, he could only imagine how angry Diantha must have been figuring out one of her right hands was a member of the very organization she had sworn to snuff out. As long as Malva was behind bars, however, Sun supposed he could forget about... Flare. _Ugh_ , just the mere mention of that name made him sick.

Serena noticed this, and immediately regretted sharing so much. "Sorry," her voice is somber, and her facial features soften. The confidence in her demeanor had disappeared. Sun waved his hand dismissively in response. The rest of the drive continued in silence.

* * *

The car doors slam closed as the two step outside. Sun opens the back seat to grab his suitcase while Serena begins making her way to her front door. It was a decent sized house, standing two stories tall with a stained glass window displaying Xerneas out front. Serena said she had that commissioned. Her yard was covered in assortments of flowers and the pathway to her door was covered in different wind chimes. Sun vaguely remembered Serena telling him that she moved out of her parent's house once she landed the modeling deal a while back. Sun had commented at the time that they were very similar in living double lives, but never explained to Serena what else he did aside from champion work.

Serena unlocked the door, but before she opened it, told Sun to stick behind her. Or, at least try to, considering he was getting tall. Upon opening the door, Serena was greeted with several "welcome backs!" Sprawled across the living room were 3 people. One was a girl, currently was setting food down on the coffee table. Her hair was long and wacky. Her trademark pigtails had somehow grown even longer, and the loops around them as well. Neither Sun nor Serena were aware of how she did her hair in the mornings, or if it just naturally grew like that. On the couch beside the girl was a larger boy, who appeared to have grown a bit of facial hair since the last time Sun saw him, and a smaller boy with curly orange hair snuggled up close to him.

Serena cleared her throat, grabbing everyone's attention once again. "Hey, I brought a friend." With that, she stepped aside. Sun stepped into view with a blank face. He gives a stiff wave to the room, while everyone else in the room stares with wide eyes. Suddenly, the girl hopped up and pulled Sun into a hug, practically spinning him and lifting him off his feet.

"We missed you sooooooo much!" She choked out. Wait, wait, was she actually crying? Sun knew 3 years was a long time, but did he really mean that much to them? He never thought he did.

"H-hey, Shauna, it's alright. I missed you guys too." Sun awkwardly pats her back and gazes over to the other two in the room. The larger one shoots a soft smile and a wave, and Sun can't help but squint. "Hey, Tierno, that you?"

"Yeah, man, welcome back!" Tierno's free arm tightens around the smaller boy. "Hey, you missed a hell of a lot, and you're just in time, too! We're gonna watch a movie and Shauna just finished making her chicken parm."

"Are you and Trevor a thing yet?" Sun's question caught said orange haired boy's attention. Tierno, however, starts laughing and nods in response. Trevor began to cover his face. Sun smirked and nodded. "I want y'all to know that I called that shit years ago."

Serena snorted. "Cool your jets, literally _everyone_ saw that one coming lightyears away."

"Hey! I didn't make it that obvious!" Trevor pouts, crossing his arms and avoiding everyone's gaze. "At least, I think I didn't."

"Boy, you followed Tierno around like your life depended on it and did backflips whenever he'd give you a hug now miss me with that shit."

The sound of a new voice caused everyone's head to snap to the stairs. Slowly, a young man with dark skin and shoulder length brown hair began to descend. He wore a tank top, track pants, and what appeared to be a jacket tied around his waist. Sun knew of only one person who dressed that trashy. Well, besides himself.

Shauna let go of Sun so he could step into view. The older boy paused, before making his was towards Sun. Sun stepped forward in his attempt to meet him halfway. They stopped before each other, both staring intently at the other. Slowly, the older boy's hand rose, clenched into a fist. His blank expression slowly molded into a soft smile. Sun's did the same.

"I'm home, Calem," Sun said, extending his own fist and bumping it against Calem's.

"Welcome home."

* * *

"And that's all of them!"

Mei's secretary seemed a bit aghast. She had never expected to hear about such lively characters, let alone figure out that they were _all_ champions. She felt intrigued, she wanted to know a bit more about them, which was odd. She had never felt the need to invest herself in the lives of trainers before, and yet, here she was wondering how they'd all get along, and how they'd stack up to each other in battle. Perhaps Mei was rubbing off on her.

"Mei, you're needed on set immediately." Said actress rolled her eyes before she turned to run off to the dressing room. However, the secretary quickly grabs her hand before she walks away, causing Mei to turn her head. The secretary clears her throat before speaking up again. "Thank you for, uh, treating me. Your friends sound fun."

A soft smile creeps on to the champion's face as she rests a hand on her secretary's shoulder. "They're pretty cool. Maybe I'll introduce you to 'em." Her hand slides out of the others as she turns once again, heading off towards the set and leaving her secretary to stare off into the space Mei had previously occupied.

Perhaps, she would put something together for them.

* * *

 **I am really tired and my back hurts. Anyway I have no clue when the next chapter is coming and once again sorry for the wait but I got distracted by wanting to do literally anything else at the time. But now I'm gonna go take a shower and talk to pals on discord till I fall asleep.**

 **And also apply to Starbucks. Once their website stops giving me shit. Y'know I've been without wi-fi for two months? Tethering is hellish.**


	3. Chapter 3

**I've worked on this on and off ever since I put up the last chapter. I'm not exactly sure _why_ it took me this long to pump this out, but I suddenly got inspired to finish this earlier this week. A good 3/4 of it was done within the week. Mostly I've been doing other stuff like commissions, but I think I needed a break after a really nasty client recently. I also have an idea for a short Adventure Time fic, but I think I'll do that later. And by later, I mean when I get another Adventure Time high similar to when the finale happened.**

 **Also, one quick thing. If you can, please go watch Fateful Findings. It is the best/worst movie I have ever seen in my life, and this chapter contains a spoiler for it. You won't regret it if you love terrible movies. Trust me.**

* * *

For the most part, the rest of the day had gone well. Mei's secretary had definitely messed up the schedule, but she refused to get angry for it. Retakes coming first was much better, considering that she had dreamed of a live action Sailor Moon since she was young. She styled her hair similarly for a Halloween costume and never looked back. Retakes finishing up this afternoon meant that she could re-dye he hair. While blondes _did_ have more fun, she wasn't too big on it.

Mei shot a commercial for snickers, where she became the stand in for a women freaking out about losing a battle. The thought of even implying that she could lose to someone was strange, and almost felt like a sin. Upon eating the snickers bar, it would cut to her, and her Emboar. Then, they would challenge the trainer she had lost against to a rematch. It was _somewhat_ fun to shoot, at least.

The rest of the afternoon had been nothing but business. Mei was relieved to be able to relax once the evening came. Mei plopped down onto her couch with a soft sigh. God, it felt like her limbs were going to fall off. She hadn't done an action roll in so long, not since Power Rangers. Arguably, one would think that'd be the most active, but considering how much Usagi would run away in the beginning, her legs were ready to tap out.

Mei swore she was just about ready to pass out. Her body felt heavy, and her mind went a bit fuzzy. However, the buzzing of her xtransciever, along with the ringtone of some idol she liked, jolted her awake again. Groaning, she raised her wrist and glanced at the caller ID. She half expected it to be her secretary, curious about more details of other champions, but at least she was partially correct. She clicked the small button to answer, and her secretary came on the display.

"Miss Mei," she began, "I apologize for bugging you at this hour of night. However, I received an update from Clay. We're currently short on the bracket." This new information caused the champion to immediately sink farther into her seat with a groan. Of _course_ they were short. Nothing could ever just fall in place perfectly.

"Fine, fine, no sweat, we can deal with this..." Her expression softens for a moment, and she continues. "How many people do we need?"

"In order for a full bracket of 16, we would require 2 additional participants-"

"Are you kidding me?! Why can't we just have 14 participants?" Mei's expression flopped nearly instantly. What kind of tom foolery was going on in Clay's head? That should have been a simple fix!

The secretary cleared her throat and picked up a sheet of paper. "It appears that the arena in Driftveil City has already paid for a set amount of time slots, none of which are refundable. The awards ceremony could be extended; however, it has already been fully costed for the 16 contestants. Food and gifts would be going to waste."

Mei couldn't help but roll her eyes. She _swore_ it was Clay that owned that damn building, so paying for time slots should directly go through him. But, she supposed even she could be wrong about some things. She made a mental note to learn a bit more about the workings of the gym leaders and their cities. Apparently, she didn't know them as well as she previously assumed.

"Okay, okay, just..." Mei takes a deep breath and rubs her temple with her free hand. "I'll figure something out on this front. If you can manage this, get in contact with Professor Kukui or champion Sun. Either works. See if there's any other champion tier trainers on their front, or elite as a bare minimum."

"Right away. Have a wonderful rest of your evening, and I'll see you Monday morning." She hung up without another word. Mei sunk into her couch once again and slowly began wracking her brain for options. Her first thought was asking one of the elites. While they only had 3 of them currently, she wondered if any of them would consider squeezing this into their schedules. Shauntal probably had some deadline to meet for a manuscript, so Mei crossed her off the list. It would be a miracle of they got Caitlyn out of bed. Hell, it was a miracle that she even battled as tired as she was all the time. Mei wondered if she was narcoleptic at times, or if she even knew herself.

Mei made a mental note to make sure to ask, and help her get that checked out if necessary.

The last on the list was Marshall, who was currently off training by himself, practically in the middle of nowhere. This caused Mei to grit her teeth. Three elites, three unavailable. Her next thoughts were Bianca and Cheren. Mei knew that they had once battled against, and trained alongside the Hero of Ideals...

 _Stop, calm it down, dumpling head,_ she told herself. The Hero didn't show, yes, and she took care of it herself. This wasn't about her right now. She could get angry as much as she wanted later. As Mei calmed herself down, she allowed her mind to drift back to Bianca and Cheren. They were strong. Mei knew that herself. Cheren himself once took on the Elite 4, but had poor timing when it came down to it. Bianca rallied the gym leaders in order to defend Unova 5 years ago. She'd battled with them both, Cheren on more than one occasion. Once for her badge, and another with his long time partners... Gym, gym. Right, Cheren was a gym leader, and a teacher to boot. No way he'd be able to free his schedule so quick. Bianca was professor Juniper's assistant, and was currently cramming for her exam to become a professor herself. She would be even harder to contact than Cheren would be.

Back to square one.

The ringing from her xtransciever broke her out of her thoughts once again. She briefly wondered if she should pick up at all with so much to think about, but as she checked the caller ID, she couldn't stop the smile from creeping on to her face.

Click. "Talk to me, Hugh." Exactly who she needed to talk to! Not that she thought of it immediately, since she hasn't battled Hugh in years, nor did she know if he even still did, but it was worth a shot to consider him.

"Didn't you forget something?"

 _Fuck_. Mei didn't have an answer for that. Did she forget anything? Her entire day was so packed it was difficult to remember everything. She wasn't the best with that, and progressively got worse throughout the years. Ms. Secretary was her blessing in disguise. "Uhh, probably," she chuckles, "so maybe you wanna fill me in?"

She caught Hugh rolling his eyes, causing Mei to stick her tongue out at him. Hugh retaliated with his own before he continues. "¡Por el amor de dios! You're the one that asked to do your hair, and I've been waiting on you for three hours!" The young man pauses, and takes a deep breath. "Sorry, that was uncalled for."

"Nah, you worry too much," Mei began, "cause if that was too much I'd have hung up on ya."

"You really don't play that shit, huh?"

"You know it, Qwilfish. Be there in 20."

 _Click._ Her screen goes blank, and she rises off her couch with a newfound energy. Any excuse to see Hugh was a good one in her mind. The two had grown worlds apart ever since Mei had become champion, along with the launch of her movie career. She knew he had joined Roxy's band, whatever they were called, but he never talked about himself much. Maybe, she could change that, and tonight appeared to be a prime opportunity for it!

Mei was out her front door almost as quick as she hung up. The cool spring breeze tickled her skin, causing a shiver to travel up her spine. She was dressed as if she rolled out of bed, and her hair was messier than usual, but she didn't have to pretend to care what she looked like around Hugh. He wasn't about to sneak some photos and sell them to paparazzi, or roast her outfit without expecting her to return fire. But, if anyone else were to notice her, that would really kill her vibe this evening. So, she reaches for her bag and pulls out a pokeball. She tosses it into the air, and accompanying a flash of white, a sudden gust of wind nearly knocks her off her feet. Somehow, she still wasn't used to that.

A braviary reveals itself from the flash of light, letting out it's shrill cry towards the sky. However, the bird receives a harsh "sh," from Mei, causing it to snap it's head in her direction, nod, and crouch down. Mei quickly hops on to the bird's back and whispers, "to Hugh's place. Double time." The braviary nods, and immediately takes off towards the sky.

Mei's eyes couldn't help but widen as she stared down at the city lights. Virbank may not have been the best to admire from above, but it was up there. If it were possible, she would definitely spend her entire night watching from above. Alas, it was not, and Hugh was still waiting on her. But, wait no more. Mei's braviary suddenly takes a nose dive towards the ground below, causing her to squeak and shout "Slow down!" repeatedly. Despite this, the bird refused to break, for the target was in sight and they would make this deadline no matter what.

Granted, they were 10 minutes early, but that's semantics.

"Uranus, it's not a race!" Mei's shouting finally seems to get through to the bird, because Venus suddenly breaks. The descent becomes gentle, much to Mei's relief. Her heart couldn't stop pounding. Where did _that_ come from? Uranus had never acted like this before. Before she could dwell on it much more, the two landed on the ground and were met face to face with Hugh, standing in his doorway with his younger sister close behind. Said little girl's eyes lit up the moment Mei's head popped out from behind the braviary.

"It's her it's her!" She shouts, "Mei, Mei, hey Mei! You were on TV again today! You're like the biggest star, like, to the infinity of the infinity-est power!"

"That's not a real number-"

"Yes it is!"

Mei couldn't help but chuckle. "She sure told you, Qwilfish."

Hugh rolled his eyes and gently nudged his younger sister. "Go back inside, Ari," he began, "you'll catch a cold out here and it's almost bed time." Said little girl pouted before dejectedly walking back inside. Mei couldn't help but giggle as she hopped off of Uranus' back and reached for his ball. She returned the bird to the ball and made her way over to Hugh, tapping his shoulder as she let herself into his home.

The house was moderately clean, though it wasn't like Hugh could have much there anyway. He had only moved to Virbank a month or two ago, and hadn't quite saved up enough for furniture. Mei offered to help out, but Hugh was adamant on doing it on his own. On the brighter side, the only thing he had to clean was whatever toys Ari had left around the house after she was done playing. No matter what, Hugh made sure his younger sister was taken care of. Mei could smell the aroma of some leftover mac and cheese, which Hugh commented was Ari's favorite back in the day.

A favorite shared with Mei.

Almost as soon as the scent tickled her nose, she attempted to make her way towards the kitchen. However, Hugh practically yanked Mei by the collar of her shirt, causing her to trip and fall. "Pause," he began, "you can eat when we're done. It'll be easier to clean up everything all at once." Mei slowly sat up and glanced back at Hugh, pouting and glaring. This, however, had no effect on her frizzy haired best friend. As a result, she lets out an exasperated sigh.

"Meanie," parts her lips before Hugh passes her up and heads into the kitchen, grabbing the hair dye on the kitchen counter before stopping at the sink. For a moment, he stares at Mei. She returns his glance, finally managing to pull herself off the ground before making her way towards the kitchen as well.

* * *

"Look look look, this is gonna be fantastic. Shh listen-"

"You're the only one that's talking-"

"Shush!"

With a spoon full of mac and cheese, and a towel wrapped around her wet hair, Mei decided to sit down with Hugh and watch a movie. It was one of Mei's personal favorites, though it was absolutely terrible. Hugh wasn't sure exactly how many bad movies she knew, but he knew when she asked "wanna watch something great," it was a sign to be afraid. Great was almost never great with Mei. If she talked about something like it was the second coming, then it was probably good. However, just "great" felt more ominous than walking through dark alleyways or the woods in the dead of night.

Watching the man on screen, played by Neil Breen, walk out of his hospital bed and go straight home in his gown with no resistance whatsoever was one thing. His constant slamming of his signed books into his never ending supply of laptops for seemingly no reason was another thing. Hugh questioned if Mei was well off enough to do that herself, and while she said yes, she also commented that her mother raised her better than to waste money like that. However, nothing could have prepared Hugh for what Neil Breen, hell, they swore this character had a name but they didn't remember at all, was going to say next.

"I've got so much to do I'll never get done. I'm going to continue hacking into these government systems."

" _ **WHAT?!**_ "

Mei took this time to pause the movie as she burst out into a fit of laughter. Hugh, on the other hand, hopped off the couch and began to pull at his hair as he tried to wrack his brain for how this character suddenly went from an author, to a secret hacktivist. But the more and more he tried to find clues leading up to this previously, the more he actually felt pained by this terrible movie.

"WHERE? WHEN?!" He screamed, completely oblivious to the fact that his younger sister was asleep in the room just down the hall. "IS THAT WHAT THE DISEMBODIED LEGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE? WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE WHY HE'S SO BITTER ABOUT HAVING A MASTERS DEGREE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE? PLEASE, PLEASE TELL ME THERE'S GONNA BE CONTEXT TO THIS!" His gaze falls to Mei, who had yet to stop laughing, and in fact started laughing harder. Hugh didn't like this. Not because he was being ignored, no no, cause she definitely heard him speak. But that laughter definitely meant there would be no explanation on how they had gotten from point A to point Z.

Mei manages to choke down her laughter long enough to clear her throat. "S-so, I will neither confirm or deny what plot points do what," she began, "but I _will_ say I've watched this movie 6 times and every time it makes less sense to me."

"Why would you show this to me?" Hugh sinks back on to the couch. "What did I do to deserve this? I'm a good person! I pay my bills, I take care of my little sister, I-"

"-helped me crush an national terrorist organization bastardizing the original message of it's previous movement?"

"Don't push it. The message didn't justify the methods or means. And I don't care how pure of heart that N guy was, and yeah, I guess he isn't that bad, but his string of bull still hurt a bunch of people. My _sister_ being one of them."

"Okay okay, I get it, I'm sorry," Mei's smile had dropped. She didn't really have it in her to tell Hugh that she had actually met the man himself there in the Giant Chasm before Hugh showed up on the scene. Any talk about it would come off as dismissal or justification; and while she knew that N was manipulated, she also knew that it didn't change the fact that there were many people and pokemon his actions caused. As those thoughts swam through her mind, moments later, she speaks up, "and that apology sounded really dismissive and rude. I'm sorry about that, too. You're right."

Hugh takes a deep breath and rests his hand on Mei's shoulder. "It's okay. I'm still really sensitive to that. It's been 8 years since that night, and 3 since I found Purrlo- er, Liepard. Even then, still feels like it was just yesterday when they attacked Aspertia." For a moment, Hugh averts his gaze, turning his attention to the open window. Despite how hard or far he looked, all he could see was that day, repeating over and over in his head. The occasional passing car felt like a blur, and the street lights seemed dim. All he could see was red. All he could hear was Ari's crying. Poor Ari, Hugh couldn't even imagine how she felt felt, since she was so much younger when it happened.

A sudden pressure on his shoulder seemed to snap him out of his trance. Mei appeared to be resting her chin against his shoulder, staring out of the open window herself. The two stay silent, but as the moments pass, Hugh manages to speak up once again.

"There's a lot of uncertainties in life..." He pauses for a moment and glances over to Mei, and she glances back. "Sorry, gonna be a bit of a downer for a sec."

"Not everything is sunshine and rainbows. You know that better than anyone, don't you?" Mei's comment allowed Hugh's gaze to fall towards the window again. The grass had returned, and the street lights that illuminated them enveloped him in a sudden, strange warmth. Mei could feel him relax just a little more, and that made her relax as well. So, the next words parting Hugh's lips truly caught her off guard.

"I wanted to know if you could recommend me to that Elite 4 position." The statement almost knocked Mei on to her back. Hell, she had almost forgotten about asking him to battle alongside her at the World Tournament, let alone if he still battled at all, but before she could dwell on this any longer, Hugh continued. "Playing with Venom Drench is great and all, but there's always the off chance that we have some kind of falling out. Creative differences and all. There's also the off chance that, and I don't mean to say it's happening cause I see them all as pretty great people, but there's always a chance that one of them gets into some kind of scandal for, like, secretly being a cannibal or whatever other gross stuff celebrities keep getting exposed for. And what happens then? I still have to feed Ari. She doesn't have anyone else to look out for her. I just... I want to cover all of my basis."

Mei stayed silent for a moment. While it was true that Grimsley decided to up and leave almost as soon as she came to power, and finding a replacement was difficult, for Shauntal had been a bit apprehensive on that in hopes Grimsley would return one day. There weren't any other specialists they could think of, either. Iris had come up in conversation, but with Drayden's sudden passing the year before, she had to take over the position as Opelucid Gym Leader. Specialist, specialist... Right, that made her ponder.

"What type would you specialize in?" Mei inquires. Hugh rubs the back of his head and chuckles softly before responding.

"I'd say dark, but my only real dark types are Krookodile, Hydreigon, and-"

"Woah woah woah, back up a second," Mei couldn't help but cut him off, "since when did you start raising dark types?" Man, she really _didn't_ know much about Hugh's personal life anymore.

"Well, around the time you became champ, actually," He explained, "I caught Hydreigon on my climb up victory road to challenge you, and Krookodile I snagged a couple years back when I was traveling over to Nimbasa for a gig. I have a zoroark, too. Met her around the same time in a forest not too far from here. Drapion just evolved recently, and I guess I'm still working with Mightyena and Vullaby, but-"

"Pffft, wow, you really are a turbo trainer. Raising up practically an entirely new team alongside your regular partners!" Mei nudges Hugh playfully, and earns a nudge of her own right back.

"Yeah yeah, it's not a big deal. They usually help around the house and play with Ari, but," Hugh pauses to smash his fist into his palm, "they've also been great for helping the newcomers catch up. One step at a time. It's good exercise, so they don't get too rusty themselves. We're all still kickin', and I bet with enough practice I could finally beat you, too!"

Mei couldn't help but let another fit of giggles follow through. This had all been _too_ perfect. Her best friend, whom she had overlooked somehow, ended up being more qualified than some of the other options. Hugh was strong, she knew that herself. With every battle they had, Mei could always feel the gap between them closing inch by inch. When their bout at Victory Road came, she always felt that Hugh just got unlucky. Her Emboar, Wilbur, had one the power struggle between Samurott's X-Scissor and his Brick Break, but what if it was a fluke?

Despite her laughter, she shivered a bit. That was a bit of a spooky thought. Of course, she had gotten stronger since then, but if Hugh truly had been keeping pace with his training despite his schedule, then he definitely wouldn't be a slouch himself. Perhaps, if he entered, she could find out once and for all.

Once her giggling fit ceased, Mei finally spoke. "Well Qwilfish, I'll make sure to talk it over with the other elites," she states, leaning back into the couch with crossed arms and closed eyes, "I'll make sure the word I put in is real good, too, if you do me a favor and battle in the World Tournament so you can see if you can back up that big talk."

Hugh furrowed a brow. World Tournament? Right, he had heard some rumors about Clay bringing that back from Roxy. It had been a long time since the Champions tournament took place. Hugh remembers watching Mei being pushed harder than he ever felt he managed to, especially with that guy they called Red. He was like a walking arsenal when it came to battle. And despite it all, Mei still looked as if she was having the most fun she'd had in all her life. Would he get to battle Mei if he joined? Well, so long as he survived that far, he hoped so.

"Sure, I'll do it," Hugh allows a smirk to creep across his face as he playfully pushed Mei. "Just make sure you can bring it, okay, dumplings?"

"Psh, you're on. Just don't be surprised when I clown on you, like always."

"Don't get cocky, Miss Champ. I'm not the same as I was before."

Their jabs and jokes gave them both comfort throughout the rest of the night, a familiar type they hadn't felt in a long time. Their mutual company truly did heal all the stress of day to day life. Whether it be in his house eating mac and cheese while watching terrible movies, or anywhere else; as long as they had these moments of warmth to share with each other, they felt they could handle whatever, because they always had something to look forward to.

* * *

"Ohhh thank god, dry land!"

Off of the boat falls a rather exasperated Barry, with his friend Dawn in toe, rolling her eyes. Taking a boat over to Unova may not have been the greatest option for someone like Barry, for she knew full and well how restless he got in closed off spaces. However, she previously assumed that a plane ride with the hyperactive blond would be an even worse idea. Clearly, she was wrong.

It had been a couple of weeks since Dawn had received her invitation. She had never been to Unova before, so she herself couldn't help but feel a little jittery as they stood on the docks just outside of Driftveil City. It seemed pretty big. Not like Jubilife or Hearthome big, but big enough to fear that Barry would get lost, and she'd get lost looking for him, forever leaving them in a massive fluster cluck of a situation. She glances at the blond who was, quite literally, rolling around on the ground basking in the afterglow of... land.

Please, Arceus, don't let her get lost with him.

"Hey, Barry, get off the ground," Dawn sighs, "before people start staring." Barry slowly raised his head to glance around. While his eyes never met with anyone staring, he knew arguing with Dawn wouldn't get him anywhere. Not here, at least. So, he did as told and slowly picked himself up from the dock and on to his feet. Finally, he allows himself to take in the sights, making similar connections and inferences in his head as his companion had moments ago. However, unlike Dawn, Barry couldn't help but smile.

"Think we can scope out the competition?" He inquires, "Or do you think we're the first to arrive?"

"Well, you'll get one of those things at least."

The sudden voice caused the two to snap their heads around frantically. However, neither of them could find the source of the voice. The voice's owner, notably stumped by this, rolls their eyes before speaking up. "To the girl's left, at 10 o clock." Barry paused in order to figure out what in the hell that meant, but Dawn figured it out quick. Her eyes fell on a taller boy with dark skin and shoulder length brown hair. He didn't seem too out of place from the rest of the crowd. Nothing about him really screamed imposing or powerful, so his next words took her by surprise. "You can size me up all ya want but it won't do a lot. Everyone, my crew included, are wolves in sheep's clothing. I'm Calem. You can call me Cal, my stage name CXC, Grand Duke if ya bougie like that, or Kalos Champion. Whichever ya feelin' most."

Whoa boy, Dawn couldn't even fathom the confidence emitting from this person to a complete total stranger. She could barely manage that unless she was being insulted. Kalos champion was impressive, that much was sure. She wasn't quite sure what "bougie" meant, perhaps it was Kalos slang? Either way, she knew the rank of Duke was supposed to be impressive. She also hadn't heard of his stage name, though she hadn't heard too many Kalosian performers.

The moment Barry's eyes finally found Calem, he took Dawn's extended silence to do as he originally intended. Slowly he starts to circle around the other young man, scratching his chin as a soft hum escaped him. He was right. Calem sure didn't seem to have the look of a tough trainer. So, despite the champion status, Barry felt compelled to ask, "How tough are ya?"

The boy seemed to smirk. "From how it looks," Calem began, "tougher than you at least. No cap."

"Ever the humble one, ain't ya?" Almost as quick as Calem's words parted his lips, a shorter boy with darker skin and long black hair appeared from behind him, seizing the chance to elbow the taller boy's side, causing him to jump. Just as suddenly, Calem's head jerked forward as a fist collided with the back of his head. The owner of which was a rather dainty honey blonde sporting a plain, long sleeve black shirt, a red floral high-waist skirt, and a rather beautiful flower crown.

"Christ Cal, you really couldn't wait to give your entire resume, couldn't you?" She sighs, crossing her arms. This seemed to push Calem's buttons, his face twisting into a scowl as his head snaps back to look at his companion.

"Hey how's the view from that glass house of yours?" He spat. "I know you ain't talkin' like you didn't plug your entire fashion line the stewardess that complimented your skirt fir 5 minutes."

She seemed taken aback by this sudden outburst, while the smaller boy began whistling the tune of Curb Your Enthusiasm, catching the honey blonde's attention, and earning a sharp glare. "Cut it, jerkface. And you," she returns her attention to Calem, "you can't just do me like that." She couldn't say it with a straight face, bursting into a fit of giggles at the absurdity of the situation. Calem's frown slowly grew to a soft smirk as he playfully pushed the girl. She returned with her own.

Dawn took this moment to clear her throat, causing the attention of the newcomers to fall on her. However, once she held their attention, Dawn could feel a familiar unease slowly coursing through her body. Sweet Arceus, speaking up in front of strangers never got _any_ easier. She often wondered how such a reserved person like Cynthia could stand to do it, with all the meetings and public speaking being a champion required. After Dawn had done it herself for an entire year, she assumed she'd feel less anxious about it.

She never did.

"Hey, uh, nice meeting you all," as the words parted her lips, Barry was tempted to answer for her, but quickly pushed that urge deep down. It would just embarrass her, and he knew that playing savior was the last thing she needed from him. After his quick mental deliberation, he tuned back into the conversation. "My name is Hikari, but my friends call me Dawn. I'm, uh, I became champion of Sinnoh officially last year, but I technically defeated previous champion Cynthia almost 8 years ago." She reaches up to remove her sunhat before she bows her head. "It's nice to meet you- dah, I already said that, didn't I? Whoops!"

"Conversations are hard, don't sweat it." The smaller boy spoke up once again, lifting his own cap to run his fingers through his flowing black hair. "I used to be good at it, but I've gotten worse as time goes on. Kinda like it's natural progression from isolating myself from the world for nearly 2 years, but-" He pauses as he notices the sudden unease in the air, from the strangers and his peers. _Fuck, I did it again._ "Look, uh, forget you heard that last part. Point is, I get it. And these two are my buds, and they get me, so they'll get you, too."

"Okaaaaaay, anyway!' With a clasps of his hands, Barry directs the attention to himself, further avoiding the strange self-deprecation of that literal kid. "Name is Jun Barry, but call me Barry cause I prefer my last name opposed to my first. Been a friend of Dawn here since childhood!" He ever so casually wraps his arm around the smaller girl's shoulder, pulling her closer to him. "Weren't too many kids in Twinleaf our age, so we had a connection immediately."

"He also wasn't, like, weird about me playing with him just because I was a girl, so," Dawn manages to sneak in.

The honey blonde smiles and pushes Barry aside, causing him to lose his grip from Dawn and fall on to his back. Quickly, she cups the shorter girl's hands in her own and smiles brightly towards her. "It's so nice to meet you! I'm Serena, one of Kalos' elite 4! I'm a fire-type specialist specifically, but I brought my old partners with me too, just in case! But, enough of that," Serena seemed much closer to Dawn's face than she originally remembered. Dawn wasn't sure whether or not to be excited from the young woman's enthusiasm or feel even more anxious. Probably both. While she was figuring that out, she attempted to pay attention to what Serena said next. "I _love_ your dress, it's so beautiful! It goes really well with your trench coat! Where'd you get 'em? Can I get them imported?"

"Uh, y-yeah, thanks?" Dawn hadn't expected so much of her personal space to be invaded, or that she would be fine with someone like her doing it? She's pretty sure there was some moral compass she should activate, but she wasn't sure if she should tell her to back off. Something about the honey blonde felt oddly comforting. Her grasp was soft, and her voice manage to tickle her eardrums in a way that made her skin crawl. Her brown eyes stared into her own, and she felt locked in place. How long had she been staring into them? How long had she been staring at her?

Oh, right, her questions. She almost forgot. Dawn's brain seemed to flatline as a soft, extended, "Um," parted her lips as she tried to wrack her brain for an answer. Her dress, her dress. She wore a lot of dresses, most of which her mother or Cynthia picked out. This one came from the former, so it had to have been close to home, or Hearthome at the farthest. This, however, obviously wasn't an answer for Serena's question, so she managed to finally choke out, "I'll get back to you on that, okay?"

"Great!" Serena let go of Dawn's hands just as Barry managed to pull himself off the ground. As he began to dust himself off, the smaller boy began to speak up again.

"So, like, I'm Sun. I guess I'm the first champion of Alola, but I honestly-" he paused again, catching himself before he went on another tangent. "Nevermind. You uh, you guys seem cool." The response is met with a simultaneous "thanks," and "you too, bro."

"What's it like being the first champion of a region?" Barry inquires further. This caused Sun to rub his arm and avert his gaze. While it was his most asked question in interviews, he still hadn't thought of a concrete answer to it. He still wasn't sure _how_ he felt, and it had been almost a year since he first sat upon the throne atop Mt. Lanakila.

"I mean, I dunno," he began, "probably the same as everyone else? Just, y'know, with the label of first." Sun's facial features soften momentarily as his gaze fell upon Barry again. "Enough about me. It's boring. What's your deal? Are you part of Sinnoh's Elite 4?" To this, Barry shook his head and wagged his index finger.

"Nope! Just one of, if not the toughest trainer Sinnoh has to offer!" He glances at Dawn, who appeared to be rolling her eyes from his comment, but his bravado didn't falter. "I'm second only to my pal here! And that won't even be for long, because I know I'm gonna snatch that championship title one day! That's, like, my life dream!" He paused for a moment before snapping his fingers. "Oh! It's that, and becoming a professional wrestler like The Master! With my own theme song and everything!"

Calem couldn't help but snort. "My man you look like a stiff wind could get the best of you, the hell you talkin' bout?"

"Big talk from a string bean like _you_ ," The blond retorts, smirking ever so slightly. Calem playfully rolled his eyes and waved his hand dismissively.

"Boy I'd break you like a kit kat, miss me with that," he states.

"OI! QUEEN BEE!" Before Barry could offer his own totally witty retort to Calem, all heads seem to whip around to the sound of shouting from further down the docks. A woman with brown hair and a blue bandanna appeared to be making her way closer to them. Her expression was hardened, more than any of theirs seemed, and she held an air of intimidation none of them had felt in quite a long time. Trailing close behind her was a green haired boy, smiling brightly and waving as if there wasn't a practical beast walking in front of him. However, what caught the Kalos duo's eyes most of all?

 _"Keystones,"_ Serena whispers, earning a nod in response from Calem. Neither of them were aware of other people that had them outside of Kalos. Unlike the group here, Calem could sense this woman's strength just by looking at her. It was almost suffocating. Her mega ring (well, at least what he assumed to be a ring) was fancy, wrapping around her forearm and stopping just above her wrist. The boy wore a pendant around his neck, showcasing his keystone off in plain view.

The group said absolutely nothing as she grew closer. There seemed to be an unspoken tension from almost all of them. Keyword being _almost_. Dawn couldn't help but smile brightly as she saw the woman making her way towards them. Along with her excitement, another thought crossed her mind: She was much taller in person than in her photos online. She didn't know the boy beside her, but she assumed she'd get a chance to make conversation much later.

"If it isn't Hoenn's one and only unstoppable force!" Dawn mused. The taller woman couldn't help but roll her eyes at that comment, but she'd get to that much later. For a moment, she sets down her duffel bag, and stares across the small group of people. Many of them she recognized from press conferences, but it was her first time seeing them in person. They all looked so... young. Not that she was _old_ per say, but she was still older than anyone here. They had to be elite 4 class at least, so she knew they were strong trainers in their own right, but they sure didn't look it. But she knew looks could be deceiving, as her best friend was practically a cinnamon roll given human form.

Her eyes fall on Dawn, and she extends her arm to point at her. All eyes fall on to the tiny champion of Sinnoh, then back on to the woman in blue. "Ya better not gimme a borin' fight 'cuz th' boat was expensive n' I didn' come ou' 'ere for somethin' borin'."

"Back it up in the ring, Sapphire." Dawn's response earned a smirk from Sapphire. She picked up her duffel bag and began making her way past the crowd without a second word, leaving the boy behind momentarily.

"Nice meeting you all! I'll find you again once we set up in our room and if Sapph's too tired to talk!" He states before he quickly trails off towards his companion, leaving the group to watch them leave in silence. It takes a while for the five to recover from the sheer presence of Sapphire, the whiplash of her companion completely unfazed by her, and how Dawn seemed to talk to her as if they had known each other their entire lives with no trace of intimidation. It takes almost just as long for them to break the silence.

"So," Serena began, "Who is she exactly?"

"Who, Sapphire?" Dawn turned her head to the blonde and stared inquisitively, before smiling once again. "She's Hoenn's champion! Or, she was for a while. She just got the position back before she came out here. She's super cool, if a little bit standoffish."

"Fuck that noise," Calem chimed in, scratching his head, "did y'all see her teeth? Does she file them that sharp? Or do they _all_ just grow that way?" Dawn opened her mouth to speak, but there was no explanation that came to mind. As a soft hum parted her lips, a murmur of responses came across the other four in acknowledgment of the oddity that was the literal walking human sharpedo.

"Oh!" Dawn's voice cuts through the murmur before all eyes fall on her. "We should probably catch up with her! Barry, we need to check in and shower first before we go eat! And they at least look like they know where they're going." Barry wanted to protest, but he remembered that he had already made peace with the fact he didn't feel like running around an unknown city blindly not ten minutes earlier. He briefly pondered how he forgot that so quick, but pushed the thought out of his head just as quick as it appeared. Instead, he shrugged and grabbed his companion's luggage before running off towards the intimidating figure in the distance. Dawn followed behind, turning for a moment to shout goodbye before returning her attention the the yellow blur in the distance. Minus two left three alone on the docks.

For a moment.

"Hey! Sun!"

A familiar voice made the boy in question whip his head around, only to be met with a tan boy pulling him into a sudden hug. "It's been ages!" He states, earning a bit of a nervous chuckle from Sun. Slowly, he reaches around to pat the newcomer's back before he finally pulled away.

"I, uh, I guess it has, hasn't it?" Sun averts his gaze for a moment, before his eyes rest upon his companion once again. "What're you doing here, Hau?" Hau felt a little shocked to even be asked that.

"What do you mean? You're competing in such a big tournament! Why wouldn't I come cheer on my best bud?" Hau glanced away for a moment, his eyes falling upon Serena and Calem. "Who're these guys?"

"Oh, crap, right." Sun shook his head and turned his attention to his other two companions. "Serena, Cal, this is Hau. He's the guy I told you about who taught me how to love pokemon deeper than I thought possible. Honestly, if I didn't meet him, my Island Challenge on Alola probably would have been a real drag."

"Sup, man?" Calem extended his fist, and Hau met him halfway. Serena, however, quickly snatched Hau up into her arms.

"Thank you thank you _thank_ you!" Her excitement is matched only by Hau's confusion. She lets go soon after, allowing "sorry," to part her lips. Hau shrugged it off, and Serena continued to speak. "I guess you're that special someone that he finally opened up to?" This question confused Hau, causing him to shoot an inquisitive glance toward Sun. Said boy started shaking his head before speaking up again.

"Uh, actually, he isn't the one who went with me to Exeggutor Island," he states.

"Right, that would be me."

Shivers traveled down Sun's spine as a familiar voice tickled his eardrums. Slowly, he turned around to be met with a young woman with long, blonde hair. She wore a grey, shoulderless top and a white high-waist floral skirt, similar to Serena's. Her bright green eyes locked with Sun's dark brown ones. He appeared frozen in place. His heart felt as if it were attempting to break free from his chest, and an unmistakable familiar warmth began to creep throughout his body from head to toe.

Was it getting hot out here?

"Lillie?" He asked, dumbstruck.

She nods and smiles warmly. "It's been a long time!"

God, had her voice always had this effect on him? Sun was having a difficult time processing all of this. A long time was an understatement. He hadn't seen her since she and her older brother left for Kanto a little over a year to search for treatment for her mother. The air about her was different, and yet, all too familiar. Still, it left Sun with one burning question.

"What are you even _doing_ here?" He inquires, taking a step closer to her. Lillie glances away to point at a small ship docked in the distance. Sun's eyes followed her. Atop of the ship, he could vaguely make out what appeared to be Lusamine, slowly being helped on to the dock by who appeared to be... Gladion? Sun almost didn't recognize him. His hair had somehow gotten even messier than before, but the ripped black clothing definitely felt familiar enough. Along with them, Sun made out a shirtless figure, who he assumed to be Professor Kukui, handling the luggage. All while making idle conversation with his a tanner woman, who he could barely make out as Professor Burnet.

Lillie takes this moment to speak up. "We got a call from the professor a couple weeks back, asking if my brother was able to participate in this tournament."

"Woah woah, _Gladion_ got in?"

Lillie nods in response. "We heard that they were short a participant. He asked Hau first, but he wasn't interested. But my brother jumped on the opportunity. So, Professor picked us up in his boat and sailed us out here. And," she paused for a moment to reach into her bag, before pulling out an Ultra Ball, "on our trip home, I'll be taking the Island Challenge!"

This new information seemed to floor Sun. Not only was Lillie here, like, physically in front of him again, but she was coming home. He wasn't sure what this feeling was. Happiness? Anxiety? Some strange mixture of the two, possibly, but knowing wasn't exactly helping the fact that he was staring without saying a single word. To make matters worse, in the background, Hau had run back towards the docks in order to help the professor with his luggage. Not only that, as Sun glanced back, it appeared Serena and Calem were idly walking off. Serena's head whipped around, shooting her companion a wink before turning around again, pretending as if nothing was happening.

Shit. Now he was alone with her. But, wasn't that a good thing?

 _Come on, jerkface. The last time you saw her was before she left for Kanto, which you **missed** by the way! Couldn't see her off? Grow up you asshole. Just because you're afraid of goodbyes, doesn't mean she didn't deserve one herself, and obviously she's happy to see you, so just speak up._

 _Say something. Say literally anything to make this less awkward. You missed her, didn't you? Why are you freezing up now of all times? Yeah, socializing isn't your strong suit anymore, but it used to be! You know how to move your damn mouth, so just do it!_

"Sun? Are you happy to see me?" She inquires, tilting her head slightly as she stepped a bit closer to him. Sun nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Of course I am, I just-"

"Are you feeling okay? You look a little red." Suddenly, Lillie holds up a single finger before digging into her bag once again. She pulls out a half empty water bottle and hands it over. "You can have this if you're feeling hot."

Sun instinctively waved his hand dismissively. "No, I'm fine," he began, "It's just that I didn't expect to see you. I'm just... really surprised."

 _Good job, jerkface. That sounds a lot like 'sorry for not seeing you off on your trip,' you piece of filth._

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, but, uh-"

A sudden, high pitched shriek caused the two of them to cover their ears instinctively Their heads whipped around to the source of the noise, which appeared to be farther north on the dock. Descending from one of the boats appeared to be six people, two of which Sun recognized instantly. The tallest one in the red cap was someone whom he had battled before not too long ago. It ended in a tie, but Sun always considered it his hardest fought battle in his life. He remembered his name, Redwood, or Red, for short. The one tailing close behind him definitely had to be Green. He couldn't possibly forget the one who greeted him outside of the Battle Tree. Arguably, he was just as skilled as the man in the red cap. However, Sun was able to counter his strategies a little easier. That was the only opponent of the two Sun managed to defeat.

Behind them stood a woman sporting green shorts and a black shirt. She had long, brown hair, and she emitted just as much strength as the other two. However, he wasn't sure of her name. He had never seen her before in his life. They appeared to be snapping photos of her, however, and as the screaming died down, Sun could vaguely make out her asking them to "get her good angle, which is everywhere." The woman with suspenders close behind, though? He instantly recognized her. He believed her name was Crystal, and Sun believed he followed her on social media. He liked listening to bits of her radio show when she interviewed guests. She never failed to make him laugh, and always caught his ear when she called out some scumbag.

Close behind her was someone he vaguely recognized. A young man in red plaid, and a pichu with an unusually spiky ear riding atop his shoulder. Sun swore he was the current Indigo champion, but he wasn't exactly sure on his name. The redhead attached to his hip he didn't recognize. Partly because they were attempting to stop people from taking photos of their face, but mostly because he had no clue who in Arceus' name they were. Sun _did_ make a note that the faux fur hoodie looked pretty good on them.

If there was one thing Sun did know, however, is that if people were freaking out about _all_ of them, then they had to be something special.

"Are they participating?" Lillie asked, breaking Sun from his trance-like state. He whips his head around to face her, and nods in response. Well, he was pretty sure most of them were. Why else would these people start creaming their pants at the mere sight of these people? If the strangers were with Red and Green, then Sun assumed they had brought them along with them.

Lillie takes this moment to place her hand on Sun's shoulder. "Well, I wish you luck! I have to get back to mother now, but I'll be cheering for you the loudest, okay?"

"O-okay," Sun manages to choke out his response. Fuck, did he stutter for a second? He _swore_ he handled that a long time ago! Lillie either didn't seem to notice, or didn't seem to care, because she ran back off to the docks in order to meet up with her family again. Sun watched her every step of the way.

 _She's too good to be real._

* * *

 **A'ight that's all for now. See ya some other time probably in like another 8 months. Probably not. I'm a little spooked on how well I can portray battles or not, but then again, that was most of the point of starting this fic anyhow. Also, yes! Next chapter _should_ be the official start of the tournament! I'm sorry it took so long, but also no I'm not.**

 **Okay goodbye for now and when I'm back I'll hopefully be employed and feel less dead inside but still be very much the same loser.**


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